Fire
by Bethisjolllly
Summary: A girl runs from the Maze screaming. She doesn't know how she came to be there and neither does anyone else.
1. Fire

"HELP ME FIRE FIRE FIRE!" The girl came barrelling out of the maze and into the Glade screaming.

Gladers ran to her from all over, eventually she caught her foot and fell, as she fell she screamed out, loudly.

Once she stops rolling over she leaps to her feet, when she realises she's surrounded by males she removes one of the stiletto heels she's wearing, holds it by the base - so the heel can be used as a weapon and gets into a fighting stance.

She glances around herself nervously, panting she finally looks around herself instead of at the faces, her jaw drops.

"What... This makes no sense..." She lowers the shoe a little, enough for a skinny ginger boy to grab her by the shoulders and look into her eyes.

"Where's the fire?"

At this she closes her mouth and looks a little guilty, "there isn't..." She continues glancing around her, in complete disbelief, "I was told... Told that if you're being attacked... Those men, there were men - lots of them - chasing me I..."

"Focus. Tell me what's happening." The boy looks a little frustrated now but she just can't believe what's happening - they must have slipped something powerful in her drink.

"If you're being attacked you should yell fire, not that someone's attacking you. People are more likely to help you if they think they're not going to get hurt... Where am I?"

The boy looks deep in thought so another steps forward, hand outstretched.

"I'm Alby. Welcome to the Glade."


	2. Ice

They have her sat in a chair in their meeting room.

"So let me get this straight-" she laughs a little and Alby clenches his jaw, "what?"

"Sorry you sound like you're from SVU."

"What?" He really doesn't look impressed, when she was first brought in the boys were confused, a girl for starters but she was dressed up.

She has stuff caked on her face and she smells all funny.

"It's a show," she clocks the confused expressions and adds, "on the TV. It's a box with pictures on it."

Alby nods slowly.

"Let me get this straight," he eyes her but she remains serious, "you were being chased. By a group of men," she nods, "and then you were here."

"Yes. I don't get it though. Where is here?" He sighs.

"The Glade." He was sure she'd been told but she presses for more.

"I get that but where's the Glade. Are we in America? You all sound like Americans," she starts rambling, "'cept the first one that talked to me. He sounded like he's from London or something." She stops and clocks one of the boy's wandering eyes.

She looks uncomfortable and pulls her cardigan round herself, trying to cover herself up. She had gone out in a skirt and vest top, the tights she was wearing were meant to look like thigh high socks and she suddenly felt like it was all incredibly inappropriate.

"Gally." Alby warned, "you're freaking her out." Gally looks away but a smile remains on his face and she knows it's not over, "I'll give you a tour and we'll find you a room."

She nods and allows herself to be led out, she can feel the eyes on her and nervously glances behind herself in time to catch Gally making disgusting hand gestures.

She wrinkles her nose and let's out a harsh breath.

"Gally?" She nods and Alby sighs, "he's a hard worker but a bit of a trouble maker. We'll find you some... Er," Alby glances at her, "other clothes."

"Right, thanks. Do you have showers? Or anything I can use to clean the crap off my face with? I didn't even want to sodding wear the make up, my mum told me I should try and look 'more feminine' or no guys ever going to," she smiles and glances at him, "sorry."

He shakes his head, "it's pretty scary when you get here first, I can only imagine how bad it is for you. We have showers and I'll show you those in a bit, just let me finish my tour and we'll get you settled." The stop in front of a big hole in the ground, "this is the lift. Where most of us come up."

"Come up?" She doesn't want to know, this seems so nuts. She must be tripping.

"Someone sends on new guy up a month along with supplies."

"Until me."

"Until you." He agrees.

"Have you tried-"

"Going down the shaft? Yes. The guy who tried got chopped in half." He says it so matter of factly it shocks her.

"In half? Jeez. That's nuts." Everything that has happened so far today begins to weigh on her and she falls to the floor on her knees.

"Are you-"

"I can't breathe. I'm dying." Her heart starts to race and she curls into a ball.

She begins rocking back and forth.

Alby just stares.

After what seems like hours she stands, "I'm sorry."

"The shuck was that Greenie!?" He starts screaming at her and her breath starts becoming heavy again.

"I- I'm sorry." She starts backing away from him.

"What was that? Are you asthmatic?" They'd had an asthmatic kid before. He'd died within two days of being there, they didn't have any inhalers or breathing machines and he just - stopped.

"No." She bends over, hands on her knees, "I. Have. Panic. Attacks."

He sighs, shakes his head and walks off.

Minutes later Newt comes out and stares at her.

"What?" She asks, she just wants to go home, she's not meant for this, she's a nice person. She gives to charity and she even volunteers. What did she do to deserve this Hell?

He walks off and comes back with clean clothes, he chucks them to her and she catches.

"Showers are this way." He walks off so she follows and he opens the door to a cubicle, "there's soap in there and towels. I'll stand here. Make sure none of the others come in."

She nods and mutters thanks.

She takes off her clothes and stands under the water, it feels good - real - on her skin.

The idea of this... Fresh Hell being real makes her cry. She sits on the floor with her back to the door and cries.

After a while she hears a knock on the door, a hard rap.

"Greenie, we don't have a whole bloody lake. You've already used a weeks worth, don't make it a month." She stands up and turns the tap off.

Whilst she dries herself she hears footsteps and hushed whispers, she edges to the door and presses her ear to it.

"I don't know, the first girl we get and she's jacked up in the head." She doesn't recognise the voice but she sure as hell doesn't like the tone. She quickly pulls on the clothes, not exactly flattering but she's not about to date any of these gits anyway.

She throws open the door and sees Gally, the one from earlier, the pervert laughing with Newt.

"Hey. What did you call me?" She shouts. She knows in a fight she'd lose but she hopes to get at least one or two good punches in.

"I said," he smirks, an eyebrow flickers - almost like a challenge, "the first girl we get and she's jacked up in the head."

"Oh," she scoffs, "a Panic Attack means I'm 'jacked up' now does it?" She twitches her head in questioning, "well, at least I'm not too much of a creep that I stared at said girl when she first got here. But then the second she seems scared of anything she's completely unattractive."

His face falls, "I never stared." At this even Newt's laughs.

"Well, I guess it was Alby's ass you were ogling as we walked away then." She has him. What is it with macho men? They're so easy to wind up.

"Alright you little shank." He walks at her aggressively and she backs up looking scared which makes him smirk.

He shoves her against the wall of the shower blocks, puts his face right in hers and pulls back a fist.

Before anything can happen she knees him in somewhere only he's touched for loooong time.

She shoves him away from her and moves out of his way, she gets into fighting stance.

The girl did some karate before she came here, one of the most drilled in rules is 'The best way to avoid a fight is by not being there.' But this was one she would enjoy.

He runs at her and she uses his momentum to throw him over her shoulder.

By this point a group of Gladers has gathered and at hearing them laugh her jumps straight back up, his lip curls in an almost snarl.

They lock eyes and she raises an eyebrow at him in a 'Come at me' kind of gesture.

Just as he gets ready to launch another attack Alby launches himself through the crowd.

He grabs Gally by the back of his shirt and points at her, "I'll deal with you in a bit." He drags Gally off and she can sense something serious is going to happen.

She is now on her own in a circle of confused but impressed looking males.

She cracks her neck and walks forward, hoping a gap will be made for her. But one of the guys crosses his eyes and smirks at her. She rolls her eyes and tries to push him but he stands firm. She knew what this was, you may have defeated him but now we know what you can do, we won't underestimate you.

"Look," she addresses the circle, "I did that to Gally because he was acting like a major dick." She stops and smiles sadly, she salutes and says, "Major Dick." They all look confused so she continues, "I don't beat people up for fun, I was just making a point. Lay a finger on me..." She pauses, "without my permission and you will be crapping out you ears for the rest of your life." She walks straight at Newt and gestures that she wants to see him in private.

A few minutes later he follows her into the woods. Most other guys would ask, about ask if she was going to give them permission with a sleazy wink but his face remains completely unreadable.

"What, Greenie?" He looks her in the eyes.

"I..." She sits on a fallen tree, her head in her hands after a moment or two she must decide that she wants to speak and looks up suddenly, "how screwed am I?"

He looks her in the eyes and then looks away shaking his head, eventually he sits next to her. "You had that... panic thing earlier; you're a girl; you showed up Gally and you have your memories." He chuckles, "So I'd say pretty well screwed."

"As a fellow Brit-"

"A what?" He interrupts.

"British person? The accent sorry." She looks up at him.

He puts a hand to his throat and touches it gently.

"Sorry, it just... makes me feel better. Being around someone like me." She pauses and rushes to fill the silence, "I know they were on our side in the war but-"

"The war? Over our voices?" His confusion made her smile.

"No. We're from different countries. Britain - where we're from - is a country. America, where they're from, is a different one." She sighs, this isn't an easy thing to explain. "Around fifty, sixty years ago a man started a war. He wasn't a nice guy and he bullied people for believing in things and when they wouldn't stop he'd..." She paused, he was hanging on to her every word, she could feel it, "he'd kill them. Children, women, men. Millions of people died because they wouldn't change themselves for him."

"So where do the voices come in?" It's almost endearing how little he understands. It's nice having someone to listen to her, even before coming here she didn't.

"I'm not exactly sure what happened but the American's - that's them and us decided it wasn't right. And we went over to where this man was and started killing people... people who supported him. And in the end, we won."

He smiles and they sit in silence for a while.

Just enjoying the company.


	3. Earth

**A/N there is mild swearing right at the end of the chapter and references to sexual assault and suicide. Please be warned and don't read on if this triggers you.**

"I cannot believe it's your first day and you're fighting already." For the second time that day she was sat in front of the 'Keepers'. Alby had come and dragged her to the hut and was now sitting in front of her, ready to lecture her on fighting.

"Fighting and winning I might add." She folds her arms over her chest, "against someone about half a foot taller than me, who is solidly built from muscle." She pauses for a moment and adds, "with serious anger issues."

Alby stares at her, clearly he has bigger issues as he rolls his eyes and says, "I'm not going to lie that was impressive but don't make it a habit. Everyone knows now you have memories, not everyone trusts you. Beating Gladers up isn't making friends."

"Fine. So long as they stay away from me, I'll stay away from them." She holds her hands up as a sign of submission.

"Right. Now, how did you get here?"

"I don't know. I was running and then I fell and I was here. I wasn't concentrating on where I was going, just getting away from the creeps behind me. I just appeared." She says, her hands gesturing wildly.

"What were you doing before you appeared?" Newt ventures.

"I was just... I'd gone out with a mate, a friend and I lost him in the club and I went outside for a cig-"

"A what?"

"A cig?" She offers, clearly not helping she adds, "a cigarette. They're these sticks of cancer that people set fire to and inhale." She's being sarcastic but it is completely wasted.

"Why would someone do that?" Alby asks, she could tell the concept of the modern world would be a long, hard explanation.

"They're young? Stupid? Suicidal? Stressed?" She says with an awkward laugh.

"Which are you?"

"All four." Realising what she's just confessed she changes the subject back to before the Glade. The Keepers share a look, "I went for a cigarette and this guy came over and started talking. Asking personal questions, I got a little worried so I stubbed it out and tried to head inside," she won't look any of them in the eyes now, she's folded in on herself and her hair covers her face, "he grabbed me, started trying to... To kiss me and I tried shoving him off. He wouldn't let go and he'd got me up against a wall, holding my hands out of the way." She sighs, "eventually I managed to conjure up a thought and kneed him - like I did Gally. He yelled but I managed to get away. What I didn't realise was he'd got friends, they were watching us. When I got away they ran at me, I panicked and ran away from the club." She sniffs and raises a hand to wipe a tear, the boys sit around her in silence, no one knowing quite what to do or say, "I ran and ran, my feet killing because of the dumb ass heels and I just kept weaving between buildings and sliding through gaps. I figured once I'd lost them I could work out how to get home. I heard footsteps behind me though, so I started yelling about fire and then I fell and I was here." Eventually she looks up, "are we done? It's been a long ass day and I would like some sleep." Obviously she was going with pretending nothing that she'd just said had happened.

Alby sighs, rubs his chin and nods.

"Thank you." She smiles and walks out, her smile disappearing into one of intense worry the moment her back is turned.

"What do we do with her?" Alby asks, returning to his seat.

"Do with her?" Newt responds, "can't she just be treated the same?"

Alby shakes his head, "we can't. We all know Gally. He won't let that go."

"Maybe she'd be good as a Runner?" Minho suggests, "it would keep her out of the Glade most of the time."

"Gally would flip a switch, klunkhead." Alby points out and the rest of them can't help but agree.

"Maybe she could serve with Frypan? They're meant to be good at cooking, right?" Zart suggests.

"That is incredibly close minded you shuckface." Frypan adds.

"Maybe we should just lock her up?" Somebody puts forward.

Moments later Gally walks in, "Having a Keeper meeting without me?"

"Gally..." Alby rubs the bridge of his nose, he is too tired for this.

"I would like to offer my opinion." Gally smiles smugly and sits at his seat.

"Gally..." Alby warns. Gally puts his hands up and leans back.

"Fine. Don't wanna hear it? Don't blame me when this goes wrong." He smirks and Alby shakes his head.

The next day they can't find the girl, wandering round the Glade they hunt for her.

Eventually, they find her.

"Oi," Newt nudges her with the end of his machete.

She stirs.

"People need to use the bloody showers." He says, slightly louder.

He'd stumble upon her curled up in the corner of one of the cubicles. She's lucky he found her, not Gally, or any of the other hormonal young lads they had here.

"Ungh... Fine." She rolls over and he gives her a hand up.

"We'll find you a bed and a job later. Today come help me with the Track Hoes," he holds the door open for her.

She snorts, "sorry."

They walk through the Glade, "I didn't catch your name."

She smiles and responds straight away, "I didn't throw it."

He glances at her from the corner of his eye, "you haven't told us your name." He states.

"No." She responds.

He sighs and raises an eyebrow, "what is your name?"

She smiles, stops dead and holds out a hand, "Ada. Ada Lovelace."

He takes it and shakes. The name fits, feels right on his tongue, "I like it."

"Good." She responds matter of factly, "it's the only one I've got."

She spends a day hard at work with the Track Hoes, the Keepers have to give her credit, she's as good as any other Glader - hard working.

Newt admires her, she is charming and the other Gladers warm to her quickly. She laughs at the jokes they tell and obviously enjoys having something to do - he's not sure he would have been quite so easy to fit in. Not after what she went through.

After they've finished they go for dinner, she skipped lunch, opting to rest in a bed with the promise of privacy instead of food. As she enters the food hall she stops. Her eyes stare at the food but she looks terrified.

"Are you okay?" Newt asks.

When he speaks she's brought back to reality and smiles falsely, "yeah I'm fine. Just need a little... Air."

"But you haven't eaten? At all." He says but he's not awfully concerned. She's just nervous.

"I'm fine. Honest." She walks away and Newt watches her. Women are weird.

After eating he finds her lying back on the grass and tosses a sandwich on her stomach.

She sits up and stares at the food.

"Thank you Newt?" He suggests.

"Thanks," she smiles but still doesn't eat.

He sits himself down next to her and hands her a jar of some kind of drink.

"What is it?" She holds the jar up to the light.

"Just drink." When she does she holds back from spitting it out, it burns her throat like whisky. She hands the jar back and flops back into a lying position.

"Do you ever get sick of waiting for the Runners to find a way out?" She says to the sky.

"I got sick of it a long time ago." He takes a swig of Jar Juice, "there's no way out, you know? Me and Minho and Alby are the only one's who know. They've been going for three years and found nothing."

"So why do they do it?"

"To keep everyone's spirits up. Some people get... very strong feelings of hopelessness stuck here, some of them try to escape in there own way." Another swig, "if we told them... There'd be a lot more."

"You mean you've had Gladers," she pauses, looking for the right words, "try to... 'go to a better place'."

Newt nods and lies back with her.

"Shit... that's heavy." She takes his hand in hers, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that. Suicide sucks ass." He yanks his hand away and she laughs, "you really think I'm coming on to you? During a discussion about suicide. I was trying to be comforting. Jesus Christ." She sits up, snatches the Jar Juice and stalks off.


	4. Snake

A/N yet again reference to rape, suicide, self harm and swear words. This is like the last chapter that it will happen I promise.

Ada is sitting by herself writing when Gally approaches, he coughs before waiting for her to nod as a cue for him to approach.

"Hi," he says nervously as he sits next to her.

"Hi..." She says obviously confused but puts her paper down and smiles, "what can I do ya for?"

"I- I just wanted," he starts, "I wanted to- what are you writing?"

If she's confused by his change of topic, she shows no sign and she answers the question, "I'm writing some stories, from where I'm from. Chuck mentioned you don't have books here. So I thought I'd contribute. Set up a library."

"What are you writing now then?" He shuffles a little closer to her.

She tenses but doesn't move, "I'm writing Peter Pan. It's about a boy who doesn't want to grow up, it's quite gruesome really. He lives on an island with his friends and when they get too old he kills them." She enthuses.

"Look," he half interrupts. "I wanted to say, we didn't get off to the best start, I thought we should call a truce."

Astounded by the maturity of the decision she holds out her hand, "truce."

He shakes and shuffles closer, "truce. So what happens in this story?"

"I've embellished it a little, made it my own. There's a girl called Wendy and she's a total badass. Pan kidnaps her little brothers and so she goes to the island by fighting a pirate and when she gets there she makes a deal with Pan to save her brothe-"

Gally has started running his hand up her leg. Ada tenses and her breathing becomes laboured, for a moment all she can do is stare at his hand.

"Gally. I don't-" she begins.

"Stay still you slimey little shank and I won't hurt you," he threatens.

She begins thinking of ways out, he's taller than her and a better fighter; she got lucky the other day, without weapons she hadn't a chance.

Ada glances around her panicking, there wasn't any weapons around, nothing she could use. Just her paper and a pencil salvaged from her bag.

The pencil.

If she could get on the floor, maybe.

She pretended to try and get up, he immediately threw her to the floor and she knew she'd won. She scrabbled for the pencil and stabbed him in the thigh.

The outside, no important veins.

Just enough that she could get away.

"Argh you shucking klunk." He screamed, suddenly people started running over to see what the commotion was.

Alby barged his way through the crowd, "what the-" Seeing Gally lying on the floor he immediately looked round for the damn girl, "what did you do that for?"

"He tried to attack me. Next time it's his eye." She smiles.

"Get him to the Clint and Jeff. I'll take care of the girl," the crowd dissipates and soon it's Ada, Alby and Newt, "you are not going to last five minutes if you keep going after Gally."

"He attacked me. He had his hand on my thigh, I told him to get it off, when he wouldn't I did what I had to," she looks into Alby's eyes, apparently appealing to his better senses.

Newt sighs, "you know he won't let that go. Some kind of punishment-"

"Punishment?! If I hadn't stabbed him with, fyi my one good pencil I'd be..." She doesn't want to say the word, "not very happy."

"Alby? It's up to you mate." The pair look at Alby expectantly.

When Alby doesn't say anything, she shouts, "fine! You know what? I'll go. Make this whole thing a damn site easier. Keep the fucking rapist!" The second she says it she regrets it, but she's fired up now and she's not going to stay somewhere like this. She storms out, heads to the room her bag is in and stalks towards the door. She knows the Gladers are glaring at her but she doesn't care. She sick of this Hell. Sick of this crap. Sick of every-fucking-thing that has happened in the last few days.

"Hey! Hey! Stop her." Newt yells as he hobble-runs over.

She continues walking, all the while being carefully approached by several different Gladers, all well aware of her latest feet. Anyone strong enough to take down Gally, twice - is terrifying.

"Hey," Newt has finally caught up to her and he grabs her arm, pulling her round.

What he sees is the last thing he'd have expected yet also didn't surprise him.

As he pulls her round she thrust a surgical knife to his throat.

"Go away."

"Bloody hell." He gulps, "don't. Just calm down, okay?"

"No. I will not calm down. I want to leave this hellhole. I can't cope with this crap and I've been here five minutes. I don't care what's out there, I don't care if I'll die but what I do know is that whatever is out there, is a damn site better than here." She releases her push on the knife and he backs off a little, "so let me leave and I'll let you live."

"I know what's gone on with Gally is bad-"

"Bad? Do you know what it's like? Do you know how it feels? To have somebody, taller and stronger than you try to attack you? Have them on top of you? Holding you down?" She shakes her head and laughs, "of course not. Because for you, this is heaven. You love this place so much, it's fucking killing me, killing me to see how domesticated the creators, whoever stuck you here, have you." She has tears running down her face now and her arm is growing tired.

"You'll die out there. No one survives the Maze," he looks at her like she's a wounded deer and she hates that look, she's seen it too many times.

"Die? Do you think I care?" She tugs down the sleeve of her shirt on the arm holding the blade, she turns it so he can see the red and purple lines, the bruises and the burns, "because I don't. Why do you think I have this?" She holds the knife in his face, "because I sure as hell ain't a surgeon sweetie." She snorts and turns to walk off, before breaking eye contact she says, "leave me."

Newt puts a hand to his neck, a small drop of blood trickles and he breathes a sigh of relief that it hadn't been deeper.

He watches her walk out and the gust of air signalling the closing of the doors begins.

"Bugger it." He mutters before jogging after her.

He stays at a distance until they've turned a few corners, away from the eyes of the other Gladers.

"I said leave me alone." She turns and stares at him. Knife still in hand but not at his throat.

"I know." He rubs his chin.

"Why did you come?" Her face remains expressionless, he's known that, that feeling of emptiness, hopelessness.

"I wanted to- to see if I could say anything? Persuade you to come back?" He takes a step toward her and she reciprocates with one back.

She looks around, searching for an answer, "I need to try. If I don't find anything, I'll come back. But I need to look at least."

Newt closes his eyes, unsheathes his machete and slides it to her, "you're gonna need this."


	5. Warrior

Turning corners at a stroll Ada begins to regret not eating, she has some gum in her bag but she's eaten most of it already. She got changed a while back, only keeping the shoes they'd given her, she preferred her own clothes and walking along looking a bit like the Scarlet Witch holding a machete made her feel badass.

She kept the other clothes though, she could need them and she wasn't one to waste resources.

She chews as she walks, every so often slicing at the vines - if she decided to go back she wanted to be able to find her way back.

It was nice to have time to think, she'd taken her phone out but there wasn't any signal but she didn't really expect there to be - she sat down for a bit a while back and flipped through photos - her dogs, her sister, her mum (on good days) and her-

"Woah, I'm walking here!" She yelled, a boy she didn't think she'd seen yet had come flying round a corner.

He stared at her in disbelief and clocked the machete in her hand, he recognised that machete.

"What did you do to Newt?" He asks, quite threateningly.

"Nothing, he gave it to me. Who are you?"

"My name's Minho. Who are you? Why are you in the maze?"

"Ada," she holds out a hand for him but he ignores it, "I appeared here yesterday. I left after I stabbed Gally in the leg." She pulls an expression that shows she doesn't really care and goes to walk past but he holds out an arm, blocking her.

"You stabbed Gally?" He asks, suspicion clouding his face.

"With a pencil." She nods and smiles, pushing his arm out of her way, "because he tried to attack me. Think what I could do with this." She holds up the machete and laughs when he pulls out his own knife, "I'm not going to hurt you. I stabbed Gally because he attacked me, let me pass and I'll let you walk."

He narrows his eyes but holds his arm out in a gesture to say, 'go ahead'.

She bows and walks round the corner he came from, "by the way. The doors are closed."

"What?" Minho's voice breaks.

"The doors closed, just after I left. I heard a loud bang. Closed." She glanced round to see him staring at her, a horrified look, "what?"

"They closed early, there could be other Runners trapped out here," he looks terrified, it's unnerving.

"So?"

"No one survives the maze. Definitely not overnight." He looks ready to give up.

"So, we go collect the other Runners, surely together-"

"No! No one survives overnight."

"Oh right." She sits down, cross legged and folds her arms, "we'll just sit down here and let whatever the hell it is come and kill us!" He glares at her and she knows her point got across, she holds out a hand and he pulls her up. She smiles happily, "let's go then."

They walk in silence, Minho edging round corners whilst Ada just walks boldly round.

He rolls his eyes every time but doesn't say anything, she can die if she wants.

As they turn a corner they find a young lad, around Minho's age maybe and he jumps when he sees them.

"Ben, Ben? You're okay."

He looks up, his eyes are wide and glassy, "yeah, yeah." He stares at Ada who stares back.

"Ben, this is Ada. She's... I don't know. But she's here." Minho crouches next to the hunched figure, "are you hurt? Have you been stung?"

"N-No," Ben scrambles to stand, "I'm fine."

Minho nods slowly but let's his weird behaviour go, "we have to find somewhere to stay tonight." Ben nods shakily, "but first we're going to find the others. Safety in numbers."

"Where are they? Where would they all have been around now?" Ada says, talking directly to Minho.

"Me and Ben both come through the North exit; Siggy and Teller through East; Ford and Archie through South and Ant and Tych through West." He draws a map on the floor with his finger, a circle with four gaps in the line. Writing an initial for each.

"So that means that everyone should have at least one other person with them?" She scratches the back of her head, ruffling her hair. She wishes she'd cut it short when she'd wanted to, this place was boiling.

"Not necessarily. Most would have turned and ran the second they realised the doors were shut." They all stand and stare at the map.

"What time is it?" Ben asks, out of the blue.

Ada retrieves her phone from her bag, "by my clock it's quarter to four."

"What the shuck is that?" He stares at the device in her hands.

She just stares at him and the terrified looking Ben cowering behind him, "a gun." She points it at him and laughs when he shrinks back, her laughter fades when she realises he really doesn't know, "a phone? Don't you know what a phone is?" She waits a moment and carries on, "it's like a communication device but I have pictures too and music. I would be able to use it for communicating with my family to get everyone out of this fresh hell but you know," she shrugs, "no signal."

"Signal?"

"Yeah. There's satellites and they... Well I don't know what they do but it works. Sometimes." She puts it back in her bag and starts walking, "Let's go find some Runners."

"Good that." Minho looks at Ben nervously and they both jog to catch up with her.

A while later and they hear screams, they all set off running in that direction.

Ada is the first to get there but when she swings round the corner she lets out a hair raising scream, she scrabbles to her feet and grabs Minho, trying to tug him back, "what the fuck is that?"

He grabs her by the shoulders and does the only thing he can think to do, he slaps her. "Slim it, shuckhead. It's a Griever."

A little calmer now she lets out a big breath and says, "how do we kill it?"

"We don't kill it. We do what Runners do, we run."

"There's two boys in there. You run, I'm helping." She has a look in her eyes that almost makes Minho believe they can.

"Okay. I'll help."

"Good, I'll distract it, you get those kids out of there." She smiles and, before Minho can get out a word of objection darts into the path of the Griever. He watches as she picks up a stone and throws it at the Griever who is inches from the two cowering boys, "Oi! Dickhead! Over here!" The Griever turns on her, it starts creeping towards her and as it gets closer she yells, "oh shit!" She does an almost cartoonish run and flies past where Minho and Ben are hidden, "get the boys!"

Minho does as she says, darting over to the two boys and pulling them up, ignoring their questioning looks and tugging them to where Ada had last seen them. They would wait here for an hour.

They didn't need to, forty minutes later she came flying round the corner laughing.

"Don't know you were scared of. That was easy." Her face was flushed but she looked ecstatic, "where are the next two?"

"The- the South. How did you-?" Minho said, for once, speechless.

"It got all up close and as it went to stab me, I shanked it," she laughs at their blank expressions, "I stabbed it with a nail file. Wasted a good nail file but." She shrugs. "Are these Siggy and Teller?" Minho nods, still impressed. "Nice to meet you." She holds out a hand and they shake, both in awe. They'd never seen a girl before and this one was shaping up brilliantly, scary but brilliant.

With that she turns tail and sets off, before Minho can follow Siggy grabs his arm, "can we trust her?"

"Slim it, slinthead." He clips the boy round the ear, "she just saved your life. I was gonna leave you."

"Klunk." Siggy mutters but if Minho hears he doesn't show it. He just shakes his head and jogs to where Ada and Ben wait.

"Lead the way."

Minho sets off at a jog, turning corners and checking behind him to make sure everyone is keeping up.

"Minho?"

He stops.

"Why are we-" Ada starts.

"Slim it. I hear something." He holds up a hand and listens out.

"Minho."

"Is there someone there?"

"Here."

"I can't-" Before he can finish Siggy taps his arm, "what?"

"Up there." He points up to where they can see a head poking over the side of the wall.

Minho looks up, sheltering his eyes as he does, "Archie? Is Ford with you?"

A sniffle and a shuffle and the boy says, "no. There was a Griever. I climbed, he ran. Everything got jacked."

"Are you okay? Can you climb down?"

"I can. I fell when the Griever... I hurt my arm."

At this point Ada digs in her rucksack, "I've got plasters. And bandages." When Minho gives her a questioning look she waves a dismissive hand and says, "don't ask."

"Who's that?"

"A girl, who wants to play Doctors so get down here." She yells up jokingly but he scrambles down the vine wall. She chuckles as he reaches the bottom but when she sees his arm she goes pale, "that needs proper medical care but I can sort it for now."

They watch in fascination as she bandages the boy up, making a sling from her cardigan.

"How does that feel?" She steps back to admire her handiwork.

"Better. Thanks. Sorry about your jacket." Archie shrugs.

"It's fine, I needed a new cardigan away, that one has holes. Which direction did that Ford kid head in?"

Archie points, "there's no point going after him, he's dead already."

"Did you see him die?" She remarks, oddly.

"No."

"Then he's not dead. Till we see him, he's not dead, okay?" She smiles and sets off in the direction the Glader pointed in.

"Does she know what she's doing?" The boy asks.

"Do any of us?" Minho responds.

A little while later they come across a blood trail.

"Ford is not dead. Just hurt. He's somewhere round here, the way the blood is and the scuff marks on the floor I figure he's hurt his leg." Ada mutters, not really to anyone.

"Okay, so where might he be?"

"Well, I suggest following the blood." She states sarcastically.

Minho glares out of the corner of his eye.

She sets off, the others in tow.

"There." She points and runs to where the blood trail finishes.

"The Griever got him."

"No."

"Ada, he's dead."

"No one is dead till you see their body!" She turns on him, fire in her eyes.

"Okay. Slim it."

"What is it with you, the Hell does 'slim it' mean?"

"Slim it? It's like, shut up. I don't know. We just, we came up with them here. You say things to, like fuck?"

She snorts, "fuck? It means... It means sex. But people use it like a curse as well. Like 'fuck it' means... I don't know, 'dang blast it' or 'damn' or it's what you say when you're angry I guess, or scared." She shakes her head, "focus. We have to find the kid."

"He's probably dead."

"Exactly. Probably, meaning not definitely. Meaning there's still a chance he's alive and if he is, I'm finding him."

"Guys? We found something." Teller was staring at something, Siggy and Archie stare over his shoulder and Ben just stands, leaning on a wall. Ada walks over.

"Is that?" She bent down. "He's alive. He's just unconscious." She turns and beams at Minho. "Just unconscious."

Minho stared at her, disbelief on his face. Somehow miracles were happening.

"Take off your shirt." That brought him back.

He coughs slightly, "what?"

"Take off your shirt. We can use it to drag him." She says matter of factly.

He pulls off his shirt and hands it to the girl, who tears at the neck, pulls the boys arms through the head hole, stands up and takes one sleeve then hands the other to Siggy.

"You can be our SatNav." She says to Minho

"What?"

"Satellite Navigation." She rolls her eyes but smiles, "never mind."

"Teller, you take the other sleeve." When the boy starts to protest one look from Minho silences him.

Ada walks with Minho and Archie strolls with the other boys, laughing about not being the one pulling until Teller lashes out at his arm.

"Slim it back there."

"Or we'll turn this car right around," Ada laughs and the others look at her. "Joke."

"Right." After a little while of walking Minho finally decides to say, "sorry I didn't listen, about Ford being alive."

"It's all good. Sorry for getting so het up about it." She pauses and he lets her, eventfully she adds, "I had- have a brother, in the army. They reported him MIA, said he was probably dead. My family had a funeral, sold his stuff, said he was dead. But I knew he wasn't. I just, I didn't feel the loss you know? But they said I was being immature. It was horrible."

"I'm sure he's alive." Minho says reassuringly, although he's not sure he believes it.

"I know he's alive." The look on her face is a scary kind of determined.

"Do you know the time?" Ben asks again.

The girl gets her phone out again and checks it, "a little past one. When do the doors open?"

"Five but since they closed at four today, I'd say four again.."

"Twelve hours? Okay, we've survived nine, three more won't be too bad. It's three hours to get to the other two boys right?" Minho nods. "Let's just pray no more Grievers drop by. Touch wood." She taps her head.

Minho frowns a little but smiles at her quirk, he has no clue what just happened.

They walk for two more hours, Ford is holding the other back but they're the only ones who can do it. Ben is, well, something's wrong; Archie's got a bad arm; Minho is navigating and Ada is protection.

"What was that?" Archie says. He's stopped dead, listening.

"I didn't-" a loud clicking sound sends chills down the Gladers spines, "I heard that. We should speed up. Don't talk."

They speed up but every step is painfully loud, as if they're calling out to the Grievers.

"Minho!" Siggy screams.

He spins round in time to see a Griever crash round a corner behind them.

"Run." He yells.

Siggy and Teller shoot past Ada and she turns.

"They left him!" She runs back and grabs the sleeves, the Griever is close now, nearly a metre away but she pulls the unconscious Glader. Trying to run but fighting with every step.

Minho pauses, looking back at the struggling girl and watching the other Gladers run.

"Minho please." She begs.

"Shuck it." He swears and runs to her aid, he grabs a sleeve from him and pulls. The maze starts changing around them, walls moving. Throwing themselves up and through sheer luck a wall erects itself into the Griever.

They stop and lean on each other, laughing from pure relief.

"We need to keep moving." A small voice chirps up and Ada grabs the boy and pins him to the wall, holding Newt's machete to his neck. The boy whimpers.

"You were going to leave him to die."

"It was him or us!" The boy defends.

"No, two of you could have saved him. Me and Minho saved him. So could you." She shouts in the face of the boy.

Minho touches her arm, "Ada, they were scared. They weren't thinking."

She stares angrily for another second before shoving herself away, "fine. But if you need help, don't count on me." She spits.

There is a silence and she starts walking again.

The boys look at each other, ashamed and they take up their jobs pulling Ford again. Archie walks with Ada and Ben stumbles along in his own world. Minho stays at the back of the group, this girl scares him, he doesn't know why but she seems powerful.

Another hour of walking and they come across two boys, cowering behind vines.

When they pull them out they scream and shout about Grievers, it becomes clear that they've been stung.

"What were they stung by? What do you mean?" Ada starts.

"The Grievers. You said they tried to stab you? This is what would have happened if you had been. When we get back, we'll get them the Grief Serum. They won't be the same afterwards. No one is."

"Grief Serum?"

"Without it they'd get fully jacked. With... you've met Gally, right?" She nods, "he got stung. While back now, but you've seen what it did to him."

They set off again, Ant and Tych at the front of the group, so they can be kept an eye on.

Eventually they see the Glade.

A few Gladers stand at the entrance, obviously wandering if they'd see any of the Runners again.

"There they are! They're here!" Someone shouts.

More Gladers come and see all of the Runners walking back, though they all wait until they're across the border between the Maze and the Glade before mobbing them.

Ant and Tych are taken, speedily, to the Homestead where Clint and Jeff give them the Serum.

"How the bloody hell?" Newt asks in disbelief.

"Ada." Minho says.

"Ada?" Alby asks.

"Ada." Minho confirms, "that shank killed two Grievers; made sure we found Ford, even when everyone else gave up; saved Ford when Siggy and Teller gave up on him; saved Siggy and Teller themselves from a shucking Griever no less and patched up Archie."

Newt glances at the girl, who has now lain down on the grass, impressed, "good that."

"Bet you shanks are hungry." Alby says, "go get Frypan to make something and I'll get Archie and Ford to the Medjacks." Minho turns to leave but Alby adds, "and Minho? Get a shirt."

Minho smirks.

Newt goes over to where Ada lies, "that was impressive, what you did last night. If what Minho says is true."

"Depends what Minho says I did."

"No one's seen a Griever and came out of it without a scratch before."

"Well, there's a first time for everything."

"Good that. What happened to Minho's shirt?"

At this Ada smirks, "I made him use it to pull Ford."

"But you have your own."

"I know."

He smiles slightly before saying, "Frypan's making up some food for you."

"I'm starving. All I've had is gum." He gives her a hand up and they walk to where Frypan is cooking, "that smells good."

"See? That's how you appreciate a man's hard work. Not with your ungrateful klunk!" Frypan jokes. He serves them all some food in little metal bowls. Making sure Ada gets a little more than the others.

"Hi, A-Alby?" A nervous looking boy comes over.

"Yes Thomas?" Alby says without turning round.

"I wanted to ask-"

"Yes, there were only boys here. No, I don't know where Ada is from. But I think last night she proved herself. Sit with us if you want, Frypan has food. You can ask her all you want."

The young lad goes to Frypan and gets some food.

"Who's that?" Ada asks.

"His name is Thomas, he asks a lot of questions. He arrived after you left last night." Alby spoons the food into his mouth like its his last meal.

Before she can say anything else Thomas has squeezed himself onto the bench.

"What are you wearing?"

"Clothes."

"No, I mean, like why are you wearing that?"

"Because it's what I want to wear."

"But we're all-"

"Different people and our clothes don't matter? Yes Thomas I totally agree with you, now if it's okay with you, I've kind of been walking for 12 hours solid and would like to eat in peace."

"Sorry."

Newt, Minho and Alby share a look and laugh.

After she's finished she looks up, "I don't suppose seconds are a thing?"

But Alby holds up a hand saying 'go ahead' so she does.

Once she's gone, Thomas asks, "why is she so rude?"

"She's not rude. She's powerful and she's the first person to see a Griever and kill it. So I'd say she can act how she wants." Alby says defensively.

"I'd say I should be able to say what I want without it being discussed behind my back the second I go for more food." Ada plonks herself back down on the bench and after a few mouthfuls she looks up and smirks, "how's Gally?"

"Recovering. Recovered enough to beat up this shank once you'd gone last night." He nudges Thomas.

"He didn't beat me up, he just shouted a lot." Thomas mutters.

"Good to know I'm not the only target." She says.

"What'd he do to you?" Thomas asks.

"Not the same as you, trust me. If it was," she smiles broadly, "maybe what I said about him ogling Alby's ass was true."

Alby almost chokes on his food and Newt looks terrified but happy, "you said what?" The leader splutters.

"It was before you got there when he came at me after my shower on my first day. I said he'd been watching me walk away, he denied it so I said maybe he was looking at you and he charged me."

"So he did try and rush you then?" Thomas interrupts the conversation, which Alby was thankful for, the conversation was getting weird.

"Yes, but that's not why I stuck the pencil in his leg."

"You stuck a pencil in his leg?" Thomas exclaims.

"Yeah," she laughs, "he got a bit handsy."

It was nice, everyone smiling, laughing.

She could almost feel herself liking this place.

 **A/N sorry for the really long chapter btw. And the swearing.**

 **I know the names of the Runners in this may not tie up with the names of those in the books/films but I couldn't find a list anywhere so after Minho and Ben I decided on my own.**

 **Just realised in the books Ben is a builder. But I'm keeping this story because it works with what I have planned and it's like 1 o'clock in the morning and I have stuff to do so you will have to live with it, sorry book fans.**

 **They are the (nick)names of scientists.**

 **Siggy - Sigmund Freud**

 **Teller - Edward Teller**

 **Ford - Ernest Rutherford**

 **Archie - Archimedes**

 **Ant - Antoine Lavoiser**

 **Tych - Tycho Brahe**


	6. Memory

"Come on Greenies, I'll give you both the tour." Alby says, Newt strolls along with him. Thomas and Ada stand, they'd been sitting together being the only Gladers without a job, they figured they'd get to know each other, "as you know I'm Alby, I run the Glade." He claps Newt over the shoulder, "this here is Newt, my second in command. If I'm not here, he runs it."

"Good job you're always here then." The other boy smirked and Alby cracked a smile.

"We've got Frypan, who you've met. He's the Keeper of the Cooks." He gestures to the boy as they walk past, Ada salutes and Thomas smiles politely, "Zart, Keeper of the Track Hoes." The tall black haired boy doesn't even look up from his work. He stops and looks at the two, "I doubt we're going to make it round all the Keepers, there's none of the buggers and they're all over the shop. We've got Minho for the Runners; Gally for the Builders; Frypan for the Cooks; Clint of the Medjacks but there's only two Medjacks, Clint and Jeff and then Zart for the Trackhoes. They're the ones you've met. Then there's Winston with the Slicers; Xander for the Baggers and Velt for the Sloppers and then Wolf with the Bricknicks."

"I have no clue what half those words meant, but okay," Ada nods, "what are the buildings?"

"That up there," Alby points to a tall building, "is the Homestead. Some Gladers sleep in there; it's also where the showers are. We have the Slammer round back too. Really most Gladers chose to sleep in the trees."

"Tarzan style."

"Huh?"

"He was a gorilla man who lived in the trees and yells a lot."

"Right. Over there are the Gardens, that's where our food is grown. There's the Bloodhouse and Frypan's shack." He points the the East of the Glade, "we figure all our food should be kept over there."

"What's the Bloodhouse?"

"Where we keep our animals, where we kill them too."

"Nice."

"Deadheads. That's the part of the Glade most steer clear of. It's where the dead shanks live."

"Nice respect for the dead."

"Ain't no time for respect, you gotta move on quick, if you don't you end up dead yourself."

"Cheerful."

"Yep."

"So what do we do?"

"Nothing, for now. You take today out and we'll set you up tomorrow, you spend a day with each Keeper-"

"Including Minho?" Thomas speaks for the first time, interrupting Alby in a way you can tell most other Gladers are too scared to do.

Alby's hand shot up so fast if anyone had been in the way they'd have a broken bone or two, "no interruptions boy. Minho chooses Runners when the ones he's got die. Right now there ain't shortage so Minho don't need any."

Once Minho's finished talking Newt adds, "I've never known a Glader so desperate to be a bloody Runner, not even the Runners want to be Runners."

"Why do they do it then?" Thomas adds, he's obviously desperate for answers, Ada doesn't understand why - it's clear these boys know no more than her and Thomas.

"Duty. Here on the Glade we have three rules and only three so listen up Tommy," Newt is the only one to give Thomas a nickname and, while no creative, he kind of likes it. It makes him feel welcome. The boy holds up a finger, "one - everyone does their part. We don't have time for slackers." He puts up another, "two - never hurt another Glader, we have to trust each other." As he says this he stares at Ada who ignores he look - he puts up another finger, "three - never leave the Glade unless you're a Runner."

Ada smirks a little, knowing she'd already broken two of those three.

"Which is exactly why this little shank should be banished." Gally had been listening to their conversation and was now limping over.

"Banished?" Ada says in disbelief, "I fought you because you came at me. I stabbed you because you laid a hand on me after I'd said not too and I left the Glade without good reason but I saved the lives of every Runner!"

"You broke the rules." Gally adds, his face is a picture of hate and she's sure if the others weren't here she'd be flattened.

"Gally, we're having a Gathering later. We'll deal with this then, for now can I finish my tour?" Alby snaps.

The muscles in Gally's jaw tense but he turns and leaves.

"Okay-" Thomas goes to open his mouth but Alby's hand flies up to silence him, "no questions at the end of this tour sonny."

"Is that it?" Ada remarks. Alby nods, "alright. Thanks." The girl walks off, planting herself on the grass, removing her phone from her bag and flicking through something.

Newt can tell from hear she's looking at photos, he goes and sits with her, leaving Thomas to pester Alby.

"Are you okay?" He asks, trying to draw anything he can about the outside world from her.

"Yeah. I'm just finding this all," she gestures to the Glade in general and her voice fades out.

Sensing she doesn't want to talk, he sits next to her not looking at her, just watching the Glade.

"What are you looking at?" He eventually asks. He could see the outside world, see his family maybe. Get a memory or two.

"Photos." She turns the phone so he can see and he shuffles closer to her, "these are my dogs, that's Blade and that's Beetle." She points to the two dogs on the screen, a puppy and an adult dog.

"They're cute." He smiles - nothing. Not one memory.

She flips through photos, pointing people out, "that's my mum and me; that's my brother in his uniform; those are my friends from school, I don't speak to them much anymore but they're still good memories you know?" As she talks she runs her hands over a pendant he hadn't noticed before.

"What's that?" He goes to grab it and she recoils, "sorry, I-"

"No, it's just- my- a girl- Ladena- my girlfriend gave it to me, ex-girlfriend. It's the only real thing I have from my home and it helps calm me down."

"Girlfriend? But I thought you said-"

"That I'd give permission to touch me? That was a joke, dude!" She laughs, "but seriously, I date either. But not here, not that you're not all strapping lads but this just isn't the place."

He nods, "yeah, I get that."

She holds her phone up again and he shuffles closer, "that's me and my friend, Ava, when we went to see Wicked."

At this he jumps back in horror, "W-wicked?"

An addled look clouds her face, "yeah? Wicked. It's a musical." She smiles, obviously remembering back, "Wicked is good."

"Wicked?" The boy had gotten to his feat and was limping towards where Alby was still trying to get rid of Thomas. They have a brief discussion where all three boys look over at her multiple times, eventually Alby storms over.

"What do you know about Wicked shank?" He holds a small blade towards her and she lies on the grass, startled by the whole situation.

"Wha-what?" Wide eyed on the floor beneath two angry looking gents, she looks and feels a little pathetic.

"Wicked. What do you know about them? You better start bloody talking."

"Umm... There's Elphaba, she's gre-green and then Glinda or Galinda. And by accident Elphaba causes bad things to happen, shit goes down. Her world's in catastrophe. She ends up in this like Killzone, experimenting with her magic and the department who were helping her..." She rambles as the boys look at each other, "what?"

"World In Catastrophe. Killzone Experiment Department." Newt remarks as if it's meant to mean something.

"What?"

"World In Catastrophe. Killzone Experiment Department. Wicked."

"It's a musical. It's not some 'department'."

"Shank, what do you know about this?" Alby turns to Thomas who looks startled by the accusation.

"I don't know anything," but the look he gives Ada says he knows something and a silent agreement is made to discuss this later,

"Right, you shanks go, don't tell anyone." He looks at Newt, "we need to call a Gathering. This klunk is weird."

The boy nods and heads out to tell the Keepers.

The two Greenies head to the forest.

"What do you know?" She says to the boy.

"I just keep having these dreams. A girl, not you and me. We keep talking about Wicked, someone keeps telling me 'Wicked is good'." The newcomer rubs his temples, "I don't know what it means."

"No. Wicked is a musical. I don't know why I described it like that though, I don't know what's going on in my head right now. It's like, I'll talk about something and it will come out different, weird. And when I remember things they are clear, like really clear." She scrunches her face in an effort to think harder.

"Are they all hazy? And you can't quite make everything out though?" He says, this whole situation confusing them both.

"No, that's the weird part, that's how memories are meant to be. Mine are so real, they're like a movie. I mean, no one remembers being born now but I could tell you the name on the Doctors name tag," she closes her eyes and a split second later says, "A D Janson. A D Janson, that's him. He looked like a rat. Then there's my teachers at school," she starts shouting subjects, her voice becoming panicky, "Math - Mr Michael. English - Anderson. Paige was drama and Science - Wright. Doctor Wright. No one remembers things that clearly. Not like that." She sits down, her head in her hands."

"Hey, hey. It's okay." He puts a hand on her back but feels her tense up beneath it so he moves.

"No. This means I'm part of this. This means someone jacked my brain. I wanna know who."

 **A/N okay, I haven't read the book in ages and I totally forgot about Frypan's name so that's my bad. I've done it now and I'll leave it because I won't find them all and people will be confused.**

 **For this chapter there are three Gladers I wanted names for who don't have them, they are:**

 **Xander - Alexander the Great**

 **Velt - Teddy Roosevelt**

 **Wolf - Wolfgang Mozart**


	7. Survivor

"I need help." Ada barges into the Gathering, tears streaming down her face.

"Ada you can't just-"

"My memories. They're. Too. Clear." She sniffs, somehow she manages to look scary, the machete has been taken from her and her bag searched for any weapons, so they know that if she did try to hurt anybody she could be over powered but there was a powerful hatred in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Alby was trying to be helpful, trying to ask the right questions.

"Think. Do you remember your first day here? What everyone said to you? Could you point out the precise colour of the sky that day? Or pin point who you saw first?" she looks at there faces before speaking again, "I can. I remember being born, I remember the name of the guy who delivered to me, my dad's face. Who visited me and when. I remember every detail."

"What? That's not..."

"Not possible? Right and that's seventeen years of memories. Seventeen. And you have three at most. I need to know who did this to me and why. I need your help." There's an anger and desperation in her eyes that makes Alby nod his head.

"We'll help, we'll help you get your memories. You can be a Runner with Thomas, with Ant and Tych out we need two more Runners. That's you two."

"What? Thomas? And this shank? They've been here a day!" Gally was in the meeting and he wasn't happy, but then, was he ever?

"Thomas wants to be a Runner, hasn't shut up since the first day here and Ada proved herself the other night when she saved the lives of eight Runners and really, none of those klunks out there are desperate to get out into the Maze. So why not let the one who is and the one who can survive?" Alby's speech hits Ada, she may have just been given a compliment. In her memory, she was rarely called a Survivor, it felt good.

"How are we meant to trust this shank? How can we know she's trust worthy?" Gally spits.

"What? Because I rejected you? Because I stabbed you in the thigh? Because I actually want to leave here and am doing something about it? Because I don't just sit about doing fuck all?" She was yelling now, right into his face.

"Hey!" Alby yells, they both shut up, Alby turns to Ada, "Gally builds everything, all the buildings we need? Him. So don't say he does 'fuck all'" he turns to Gally, "this is a democracy but in the end, what I say goes, okay? I say she's a Runner, Minho agrees. She's a Runner. So slim it Gally."

The tall boys nostril's flare and he storms out.

"Shit... Should I go apologise? I just got a little... pissed. It's scary here, a lot of things are happening and I- all I had was my memories and now I don't even know if they're real. I'll go apologise," she turns to leave but Alby catches her arm.

"I wouldn't. He's not a reasonable person at the best of times. He's scared of change and you're different."

"Okay." She thinks for a moment and adds, "what do Runners do? I mean I get they run but to what ends?"

Alby breathes a heavy breath and Minho steps up, "we map the maze."

"Surely you only need to do that once?"

"It changes. You know the wall that moved into the Griever the other day? That wasn't an accident. The Maze walls move during the night. We map it to see if there's a pattern." He gives her a look, his eyes widen in a semi-sympathetic expression.

"How long have you been doing that?"

When she says this the boys give each other a look, clearly none of them wanting to say, in the end Newt mutters "Three years."

"Three years?" Ada scoffs, shakes her head and walks out, "no freaking way."

"Ada! Ada please." Newt follows her across the Glade as she storms to the Deadheads.

"Piss off. Three years? What the fuck?" She shouts and Gladers look up, relishing in the entertainment.

"Ada! Bloody slow down would you!" He limp/runs after her and she turns on him.

"Why? So you and your limp can keep up? Your limp Newt! That is what this Maze gave you." She laughs out of disbelief, "how can you be happy here?"

He clenches his jaw, shuts his eyes and let's out a heavy breath, "come with me."

She follows him into the Deadheads and sits with him on the log they sat on on her first night.

"I want you to know you can't repeat this. To anyone. Not Minho, not Thomas, no one." He looks dead ahead and she can tell this discussion will be serious.

"My- when I first came here, I worked hard, setting it up and everything. Then I became a Runner, I'd run this Maze everyday till we figured out that there is no exit. After that I'd lose it, I'd get angry so bloody angry. I would hurt myself. I'd cut myself with that machete, I'd spend all day doing nothing but that. No point doing anything else right? Because there wasn't a bloody was out anyway. Till one day even that wasn't enough and I climbed one of the walls, got half way up and threw myself off. I was lying at the bottom of the wall, half dead and Alby found me, dragged me all the way back into the bloody Glade and fixed me up. Since then I haven't been happy, not one bloody day, I hated every minute of it." When she looks at him, tears fall from his eyes but he doesn't look sad, he looks furious.

She takes his hand, "you got hopeless." She nods, "I've been there. I've taken pills, hung myself, drowned myself." she rolls up her sleeves, "see these?" He looks. "they're battle scars. You have them too, they're what prove that we're trying." He holds out a hand and when she doesn't object stretches his fingers out, running his fingers across the bumps. She watches him. "Most of these were when I was giving up, when I lost hope and they show that I turned around, got back up and faced the world. Every time I've tried I've been found before anything deadly happened but you know what?" She squeezes his hand.

"What?" He doesn't look convinced, he doesn't believe there is possibly a way that he can ever not feel like this. His gaze still on her arm, the pain she put herself through just to keep on living.

"I'm glad because now I'm here and I can save you. I can get you out, I don't know how but I know I'm meant to, I feel like I've always been building to this. I will get you out. We will see our parents, our families again. And you will be happy again."

He smiles, a small offering to show he appreciates the effort, she leans into his shoulder.

"It's fucking hard though. Fighting. Sometime's the hardest part of living is just taking breaths to stay." She sings, "cause I know I'm good for something I just haven't found it yet and I bet."

"What's that?" He sniffs.

"It's a song, from my memories. It's called Miserable at Best, it was my anthem." She laughs slightly and so does he. They both sit in silence for a while, just enjoying company.

"There has to be a way out, it doesn't make sense. Without the Maze maybe but why go to the effort of a changing Maze without having a way out?" She puts the question to no one at all, "I'll get us out."

After a while he stands up, "I have to go back, they'll be expecting me." She nods and he walks off.

She falls back off the log and looks at the sky, she misses her sky. This one just isn't the same.

After a while she just closes her eyes, enjoys the sound of nature, behind her she hears something rustle and she rolls over and pushes herself off the ground.

"Hello?" She reaches for the surgeon's knife - gone, they took it from her with the machete. She silently curses herself for not finding something better.

Silence.

"Hello?" She looks into the trees, she can't see anyone. "Gally? If that's you- oh, Ben right?" she sees the Runner through the trees.

Something seems wrong about the way he's staring at her, she starts backing up, "are you-" she trips over the log.

The next thing she knows the boy is on her, clawing at her and it's all she can do to hold him far enough back to stop him biting her.

Biting? Is this Walking Dead?

She looks around her, for anything she may be able to use.

There's a branch coming off the log, if she could pull it off but she's finding it hard to get Ben off with both arms, with just one she'd be screwed.

She throws her weight to the side and it works, he rolls off her.

But he's still stronger than her, so she clambers to her feet and runs, He'll for leather away from the Runner, unfortunately he's a Runner so he catches up pretty quick.

As his fingers brush her shoulder they go flying over a hill, she prepares herself and by the time she's reached the bottom she rolls over once into a standing position.

No time to celebrate, Ben grabs at her ankles.

She manages to pull her foot away and runs.

"FIRE! FIRE! THERE'S A FUCKING BIG FIRE!" She howls.

The few Gladers still around remember her first day and smirk before relaxing into whatever they were doing.

She cries out as he throws her over and starts grabbing at her, tearing at her skin.

Minho, overhearing her yells, comes out of the Homestead.

"Shuck." He curses, "NEWT, ALBY. GET OUT HERE."

By now the other Gladers have realised something is going on and some are trying to pull Ben off the girl. She kicks out and scratches at his face but there's only so much she can do and she's tiring pretty quickly.

"Ben get the off her."

"What are you doing?"

"Stupid shank."

In the end it is Minho, who throws his elbow into the boys head.

Ada shoves him off.

"The fuck is his problem?" But Minho has a knee in his chest as Newt and Alby jog over.

Ben screams and squirms under the other boy but to no avail.

"Lift his shirt." Newt commands and this sets Ben off even more.

"No! No! She's part of-"

"He's been stung." Newt announces solemnly, "throw him in the Slammer." Ada shrinks away at the sight of a stab wound on his stomach, the veins around it are black and very much look unhealthy.

"Jesus, what is that?"

Wolf and Zart grab the boy and drag him to the back of the Homestead.

"What did he do that for? What was that thing, on his stomach? Why did he hurt me?" Ada is visibly shaking,her face pale and tears stream down her face.

Her legs collapse beneath her and she just sits, hunched on the floor with her head in her hands. The three Gladers stand around her, none quite sure what to do until Newt squats next to her, "remember what you said? Ada? Huh? We're going to defeat this Maze together? We'll get out and crush the people who put us in here, yeah?"

Minho and Alby share a look before walking off, best leave him to it, he knows what he's doing it seems.

"Why? Why did he..." She whispers.

"He was stung and he's not a person anymore. He died when he was stung."

"What'll happen to him?"

"He'll be banished."

At this she lets out a staggered breath, "no. I want to save everyone, including him."

"He's gone. That's a Griever, in there. Not a person."


	8. Names

"Ada, it's time." Newt sticks his head round her door.

"I'm not coming, I can't watch that." She lies back on the hammock Chuck put up for her, not looking at him.

"You have to. It shows that you care."

"I do care but if I go I'm going to have to add something to my list of nightmares."

Newt shakes his head and leaves, no use arguing with the bloody girl.

Once he's gone she pulls out her book, a distraction from what is sure to be a noisy event. It had been a long day and she hasn't slept since yesterday.

Since waking up she'd been nearly molested, stabbed a guy, wandered around a maze for hours, saved a few people, received the grand tour and been nearly eaten by a crazy Griever person.

But sleep wouldn't come to her, every time she closed her eyes one of the many horrors she'd seen forced its way in.

So she read.

This time about Soulfinders and Savants and people with telekinesis.

"No! Don't do this! She's one of them! She's with them!" She heard the cries from outside, the almost incoherent pleas for life.

Focus.

Read the words.

"She'll kill you all!"

Each word.

"Help!"

She slams her book down, throwing her hands to her ears, she can't do this.

Breathe.

In.

And out.

In.

And out.

In and-

"You'll all die!"

Her hands are clamped so hard over her ears by the time it's over she doesn't realise anyone's in the room with her until a hand rubs her back.

Slowly she removes her hands and sits up.

"You okay?"

She nods slowly.

"Sure?"

Nod.

"Right well Frypan's got some dinner on the go, let's eat."

She rolls off the hammock without objection, she needed a distraction and she wasn't going to be able to do that by herself.

"Alby?" She whispers.

The boy looks round at her.

"Can we- can we not tell anyone?"

He nods slightly and carries on walking.

When they reach Frypan's shack there's already a few Gladers, some of them glare at her, some have looks of sympathy.

"Hey Ada, you doing okay?" Frypan gives her a sad look as he hands her the plate.

"I'm fine," she snaps but her face softens, "looks good."

She walks away from him and over to an empty table, really not feeling company right now.

But needless to say, Alby comes over and slides in next to her.

"Alby, I want to be alone."

"You may want that, but I'm not letting it happen."

"Alby." She warns but he stays and eats.

Minutes later and Newt, Minho, Thomas, Chuck and Zart have come over.

They sit, squashing themselves in around Ada and Alby.

"Hey Ada, you good?" Zart asks

"I'm fine, Zart." She snaps.

"I'm Wolf." He whines.

"Wolf?" She asks, "the Keeper of the Bricknicks? But..."

"I know. Me and Zart are identical."

"Likes twins?"

"Yep." He smiles proudly.

This must be a weird situation, no family for anyone but these two, it doesn't make sense, she thinks.

"Cool."

Wolf waits a moment before saying, "Are you really fine?"

"Yes." She snaps.

"Okay, I just- I just, I had to banish my brother. There were three of us." He won't look her in the eye now, she reaches out and puts her hand on his, "Mo got stung, he was a Runner but he got stung and killed someone. We had to banish him and I was like you, I couldn't watch but I could still hear. It was awful."

"I'm sorry, that must have been hard on you." She squeezes his hand and pulls away.

The other Gladers have been eating in awkward silence, "well, aren't you a bloody cheery lot." Newt cracks a smile and everyone else cheers up.

The conversation turns to 'the past'.

Ada laughs as she explains TV shows, music and musicals.

She talks about what a selfie is and snaps a photo to show them, they just look horrified, seeing themselves must be a shock so she moves on.

She laughs through an explanation of Game of Thrones, explaining the Red Wedding.

And the way music makes you feel, she gets her phone out and finds some music to play, comes across Next to Normal plays them everything else.

"Mozart was crazy," she sings, "flat fucking crazy, bat shit I hear."

"Wait!" Wolf shouts.

She jumps and pauses the music, "What? Did you recognise it?" Still holding to the hope that they were from her time, not the other way around.

"No. What did that say about my brothers?" He asks, looking angry.

"No," she laughs, "it said, Mozart was crazy. He's a musician."

"Mo-Zart?" He asks.

"Mo-Zart," she repeats, "Wolfgang Mozart. Oh my God. You're named after him!"

"I have a namesake! I have a namesake!" He sings gleefully.

"Wait, what about us?" The others asks, she glances round.

"Umm... Thomas, must be Thomas Eddison. He invented the lightbulb. And Alby could be Albert Einstein? He had the Theory of Relativity. And Newt..." The boy looked at her expectantly, "could be like Newton? Isaac Newton, an apple fell on his head." The others howl with laughter so she adds, "so he discovered gravity."

"What about me?" Minho asks, arms folded over his chest in a nonchalant kind of way but it's clear that he cares, "who am I?"

"I don't know. I don't recognise Minho. I'm sorry," and she is. This is clearly a big thing for these guys and Minho didn't get it.

"It's cool, I get to be my own person," he smirks, "you shanks have to be some klunk who gets hit by apples." He strolls away and they let him.

"Who am I?" Chuck asks cheerfully.

"I think Chuck is a nickname for Charlie or Charles, you could be Charles Darwin." She beams, "that guy was so cool! He worked out that we all come from apes and there's all these religious people who think he's talking bull crap and when he realised it he was way ahead of his time but he carried on working! That's so cool."

Chuck looks suitably pleased and beams as he walks off.

"So who are you?" Gally asks. Everyone freezes.

She looks him dead in the eye, she doesn't want to be anyone, if she's someone that means she's part of this.

"I'm Ada." She says, but she sounds unsure.

"And who's Ada?"

"Newt leave it." Alby says, he tries to pull the Glader away but Gally stays still.

"No. I want to know if she's part of this," Gally glares at the girl, who only a moment ago was happy and it had just been pulled out from under her.

She shakes her head and walks off.

Whilst Alby stays to have a word with Gally, Newt follows the girl.

He catches up to her at the log in the woods.

"Ada. Ada Lovelace. I'd never thought of it, but she's a Countess. She was called Ada King but she's the Countess of Lovelace. I never even made the connection." She mutters as he approaches.

"All that means is you're part of this, it doesn't mean your memories are fake." He tries to reassure her but it doesn't work.

"I want to go home, I want to go back to my dogs and my friends and my life. But at the same time this is the best thing that's ever happened to me, before I came here I was so low I had a date set, a date I was going to kill myself. I've been here two days now and I don't think I've ever been so happy. I've finally found a group of people who make me happy and I have a thing, a physical thing, to fight against. No chemicals in my brain that I have to out think. I am finally happy."

"Good that." He smiles.


	9. The Girl

Ada heads inside to her hammock, while its stuffy inside and hard to sleep being out in the open makes her feel too exposed. Like attacking her would be too easy.

She curls up in the hammock and rocks herself a little, enjoying the motion.

She falls into a deep troubled sleep, filled with Ben's screams and accusations as they banished him.

Ada feels herself being shaken, "Ada?" Someone whispers. She forces herself awake and sits up. A concerned looking Wolf stands in front of her, "Ada, I heard you shouting.""

"Wolf?" She asks sleepily.

He chuckles softly, "yeah. It's me. I heard you shouting, are you okay?"

She rubs her eyes, "I was having a bad dream."

"Ah, the worst." He smiles, "come on. Sit outside with me, fresh air will do you good. Also, Frypan got some tea leaves when Thomas came up, and none of us can work out what to do."

She rolls out of the hammock and heads outside.

He hands her the tea leaves and she puts them down, "do you have a pot? And some water?"

Wolf looks confused but excited and he runs to get her what she asked for. She puts the water in the pot and puts the pot over the fire.

They sit in front of the fire, just watching the flames dance.

Ada listens and hears the water bubbling, "right, I'm going to need some mugs." He looks at her confused she adds, "like a ceramic cup."

He understands and runs off, when he comes back she's found a pair of thin socks and is loading them with tea leaves.

"Those aren't... Worn? Right?" He asks tentatively.

She laughs and takes the mugs from him, "no. I found them in the box. Figured they're new." She fills the mugs with water from the pan, "do you have sugar? Or honey might work?"

He nods and heads into Frypan's shack.

When he comes out she's got the socks in one mug each, she adds a little sugar to each and sends him for milk.

By the time he's back the water is brown and she takes out the socks and adds a little milk to each. She hands him a mug and sips her own.

"Mhmm," she sighs with contentment, "I love a good tea."

He sips his own, "this is weird. Not what I expected."

"It grows on you."

"No it's nice." He smiles.

They sit, side by side watching the fire for a long time, sipping at their tea before Wolf asks, "was it about him?"

"Ben?" She sips, "yeah. I could hear him screaming, the whole time I was in their. He was screaming that I was the reason we were here, that I'd kill everyone. I couldn't help but believe it, what if my memories are false? What if this," she gestures to the Glade, "is my fault?"

"Once you appear here, you're not who you were before. Everything you did before the Glade is unimportant. If you put us in here? That wasn't you, that was whoever you were before." He turns to look at her now, his eyes finding hers, "I trust you Ada. I don't believe you are a bad person, not for a minute. Since arriving you've saved the lives of more Gladers than Xander's bagged. Now why would you do that, if you were a bad person?"

She's not convinced but she smiles her gratitude. Since coming here, most of the boys had been nothing but lovely to her. It was like she had a great big family there, she loved it.

"What are you klunks talking about?" Minho came over and sat between the pair, "and what the shuck are you drinking?"

"Tea. Ada made it," Wolf boasts.

"So you know what to do with that klunk Frypan got sent?" He almost looks impressed.

She nods, "it's tea." She hands him her cup for a sip, "nearly a delicacy where I'm from." Her sarcasm goes over Minho's head and after taking a sip he looks at the liquid as if it's gold.

"A delicacy but-" he's broken off by the stifled giggles of Ada, "funny. It's good though."

"I know," she takes her mug back, "one of my favourite drinks. Calms me right down."

"So, what is it you need to be calmed from tonight?" He asks, she would almost think he was trying to flirt if it wasn't Minho.

"I had a bad dream, Wolf woke me up, I'd been shouting apparently." Her gaze is fixed on her tea.

"I didn't hear you?" He shoots a querying look to Wolf who shrugs.

"I don't know mate, I heard the lady screaming and I went to her aid." Lady? She liked that, made her sound like a proper woman.

"What are you grinning at?" Minho elbows her lightly, bringing her out of her train of thought.

"Just never been called a lady before, it's nice. I like it." Ada smiled softly, finished her tea and stood up. "What time is it? I should maybe head back to bed if it's not too late?"

Minho checks his watch, "half four."

"Ugh," she groans, "too early to be awake, too late to go back to sleep. Might go and catch a shower before the others wake up."

They wave her off, she heads into Homestead to pick up her rucksack, where her clothes that Newt gave her are kept. She remembers her cigarettes are in there two and grabs them, maybe she could sneak one before a shower, no one would notice.

She strolls round the side of the Homestead and into the shower block where she lights one up.

Ada sighs as she smokes, it's good to have one again. Cold turkey had been a shock to her system, she only had two left so she'd have to be careful but one whole cig for today seemed reasonable.

"Ada? Are you in here?"

Newt.

Crap.

She stubbed it out quickly and stuffed it back in the box, she'd not waste on scrap.

Ada called through the door, "Newt?"

"Yeah, the guys said you were. I heard you screaming last night and I wondered if you were okay?" He pauses and adds, "I did come to check on you but you were flat out."

"No, yeah, I'm fine. Just needed a cup of tea."

"Right, I heard about that. You'll have to make me some."

She doesn't respond and waits until she can hear his foot steps.

She strips off and washes off the blood and grime of the past few days.

Once she finishes showering, she pulls on the Glader clothes and strolls out. She slips her stuff back into her sack and goes for a bit of breakfast.

"Alright Fry?" She greets the cook who beams as she approaches.

"I tried some of Wolf's drink, how did you do that?" He seems impressed.

She laughs aloud, "I'll show you later." He piles her plate and she sits alone.

Predictably the Gladers fill the table round her.

When Minho sits down he addresses her, "I'm going to take the Greenie Runner training today and then tomorrow it's your turn."

"But I got here first!" She objects.

"Yeah, you also spent the last two days awake so I figure you use the rest and we'll have you there tomorrow." He reasons.

She wants to object again but another day of relaxing sounded good, "alright."

The Runner grabs Thomas and they head off.

"Don't feel too bad, it wasn't his choice." Newt interjects.

"What do you mean?"

"Alby told him that you needed to rest."

"What?" She semi shouts, "are you kidding me?"

"Keep your bloody voice down Greenie! He's worried, you're new and-"

"He doesn't trust me?"

"No, he just... He's complicated and you have to let him be. He's a good leader, let him be."

"I hardly have a choice."

Ada spends her morning with Zart and the Track Hoes. She enjoys it, physical labour - it pushes her in a way she can contend.

Lunch is finally called and she heads to Fry again.

"Hey Fry. I was wondering, what's your name? I mean, it can't be Frypan right?"

"I had one, but I forget. When I became Cook everyone called me Frypan. Now it's just my name." The boy shrugs and passes her some food.

"Thanks Fry." She smiles and sits on her usual 'alone' table.

When Newt comes and sits down next to her she asks him, "what Frypan's name? Like when he first came?"

"Siggy." He talks through a mouthful of food but she lets it slide.

"But-"

"We've got a Runner called Siggy?" He nods, "Frypan came first, he was Siggy till he was Frypan. I guess when he forgot his name the 'Creators' gave his name away."

Before she has time to argue an alarm rings out.

"The hell is that?" She covers her ears.

"The Box." Newt stuffs another bite into his mouth before getting up and running to the hole. She new a little about it, every month a boy got sent up with supplies, except it was only a day.

The Gladers gather round the opening for half an hour before it arrives.

Newt and another Glader swing the roof open.

Newt leaps into the box and says the last thing Ada thought she'd hear.

"It's a girl."

 **A/N what do you think of this chapter?**

 **I have a reason for the things I promise.**

 **Do you like that I made Wolf and Zart brothers?**

 **Also, do you think Ada should get romantic? If yes with who and why? If not why?**

 **Do you like Ada? Is she a good character?**

 **What do you think of the fascination with tea? I put that in for myself, sorry. I'm a true Brit.**

 **Also, anything you'd like to see? More of Gally? More Ada/(insert character name) interaction because right now I'm trying to be fairly diplomatic as I can.**


	10. Doors

**A/N Thanks to the people who responded about Ada having a romantic interest. Some people said Newt some said definitely not Newt, so I'm not sure. If I do a romance in the story it won't be the focus, you won't suddenly have Ada skipping through fields etc.**

 **She will be venturing into the Scorch at some point by the way, so any romance doesn't have to happen right this minute, it can be once they're free of the Maze or even further.**

 **There are like little 'moments' in this story but I didn't want them to be big.**

 **Anyway, let me know what you think.**

 **Enjoy**!

"A girl?" Ada mutters, somehow she ends up being shoved towards the girl.

"I- I think she's dead." Newt remarks, this sets off the Gladers who are quickly quieted by Alby.

"Do you know her?" Alby asks quietly from behind, it was no use though, the other Gladers had gone silent - leaning in to hear if the girl said anything.

"No- no I don't- I don't think so."

"You don't think so?" Alby seemed angry now, which made Ada's blood boil.

"I don't know her. I've never seen that girl before in my life. Okay? Happy?"

Her response did nothing except anger Alby more, "listen shank, three Greenie's, four days. Two girls. One dead, one alive."

"You don't think I?"

"Slim it, we're not saying you bloody killed her Ada we just want answers," Newt says, his eyes not moving from the girl on the floor.

Ada moves to get into the Box but Alby grabs her arm, "I want to get a better look, okay? Maybe something about her might trigger a memory."

Alby lets her get in, all the Gladers stand around staring as she kneels next to the girl, "she's not dead, just unconscious." The Gladers let out a breath, at least they didn't have a dead body.

"Do you know her?" Alby spits.

"I don't. No," she lies. Ada can feel something, a vague recognition like she's met this girl but a long time ago. She can't conjure up the memory though and she doesn't think it will help anyone to tell them she may know the girl but not really.

As Ada turns to Newt for a hand out the girl sits bolt upright.

Which makes Newt let go and Ada to stumble.

"Everything is going to change." The girl's eyes are a shocking colour of blue, made even more startling by the almost cartoonish way they bulge out of her head before she flops back down onto the Box floor.

Ada looks around at the boys who stare at her, she looks at the girl trying to figure out how to get her free and that's when she notices a scrap of paper in the girl's hand.

She peels the girl's hand back and unfurls the paper.

"Well?" Alby asks, irritably, "what's it say?"

"She's the last one. Ever." Ada reads, her voice as full of confusion as she feels.

"Ever?" Newt repeats.

Ada licks her lips and bends down, sliding her arms beneath the girl and lifting her into the arms of Clint and Jeff who have been waiting.

Newt offers her an arm and pulls her out, there's a brief moment where their faces almost collide, their eyes connect and Ada stumbles away, making sure to avoid the Box.

"Yes, so- the girl." She attempts a recovery but everybody saw. So she just heads off to her hammock, she'll lie back and read and forget today.

She decides to have a cup of tea, help her nerves.

"Hey Fry," she gives a mock salute to the cook as she approaches, "want me to show you how to make tea?"

But Frypan won't look her in the eye, "no. I'm good."

"Fry? Do you think I had something to do with her? You do don't you?" she sighs and rubs her head, "I don't know her."

"But you do. I saw, in your face. You know her, you don't know where from, but you know her. You're lyin' to everybody and I don't know why but I don't trust it." He turns and heads inside so she can't say anything.

Maybe that's a no to the tea then.

She sighs and trudges off to Homestead. Grumbling the whole way about the boys lack of trust in her, "so I come here and I save their lives and I'm the bad guy? Me! For Christ's sakes."

She throws herself onto the hammock and pulls her bag onto her stomach, she pulls out her phone and goes through pictures.

Ladena the day they had their picnic in the park. It had been amazing, they'd both brought far too much food and they had so many left overs she had been eating picnic food for a week after.

Her dogs, Blade flopped across Beetle.

Her and her brother before he went away the last time, him looking dashing in his uniform.

She felt herself begin to cry. She missed her brother so much, he had always understood when she was upset, always comforted her. He would have believed her, if she said she didn't know the girl, he would have listened.

She hears movement in the room and swipes the tears away.

"Whoever is there, just leave." She glances around and sees a tall figure, just in the darkness, so she can't see the face.

When they take a step forward her blood runs cold, "Gally." She tries to sound calm but her voice shakes, "Gally, are you okay?"

"You, you know her. That shank girl that came up. You know her." He sounds crazy, like he can't grab hold of his thoughts.

"No, Gally. I don't. She's just some girl." Ada tries to reason with him, whilst not sounding weak. She tries to remind him with her voice that she beat him twice before.

"Really? Because I seen you, in the Grief I seen you." He rolls up his shirt to reveal a nasty looking wound with blackened veins coming off it.

"Gally, you got yourself stung?" She asks in her best attempt at a calming voice.

"I had to know, I had to know who you were. Now I know, I know exactly." He reveals proudly.

"Who am I?" Ada's voice is almost a whisper, it was the moment of truth.

But he laughs, "I'm telling you nothing." He walks away.

Her shock leaves her frozen and all she can do is stare at the Glader's back as he walks away.

He'll be back, there's no doubt about that and she didn't look forward to whatever he was going to do.

She decides that being alone is not the best course of action and decides to go and see Teresa.

Teresa?

Was that her name?

Yes.

Yes, it was right.

But how she knew it was a different story.

One she didn't have access to yet.

When she gets to the MedJack's she hears voices from the only occupied room.

Ant and Tych had been cleared and set free and Ford had woken shortly after getting back, so it was just Teresa.

"Who is she?" Newt questions someone.

"I got less of a clue than you. We should ask the other one. This shanks been saying her name in her sleep." Alby responds, it hurts that he won't say her name.

"You mean Ada, her name's Ada." Newt defends and she decides she shouldn't be listening in but as she goes to step away a floorboard creaks.

Alby throws the door open and she goes in.

"Her- She's-" Ada stutters.

"Spit it out shank." Alby says, his voice full of hatred. He's obviously worried for the boys that he has such a loyalty for but it still hurts.

"Her name's Teresa." Ada gulps, "I remembered, I thought about coming to see her and I just- my thoughts- it just came out. Like the most normal thing."

"Teresa? Who's she?" Newt says.

"Mother Teresa. A nun."

"A nun? Like with the hats?" Alby almost laughs. Almost.

"Yeah. I don't know what she did but she was some kind of famous."

"Let's give her some room," a serious look has crossed Newt's face so they leave the girl, once they're outside the room Alby speeds up and leaves before anyone can stop him.

Leaving Ada and Newt.

"I don't really know her." She says, "she's just kind of in my memories but I don't know where from, which is weird because I can view my memories like a film and she's not there."

"Try. Try to remember and when you do, come to me. Come to me first. Something tells me Alby is losing faith in you and I don't know how he'd react."

Ada nods and walks to the outside, the Runners should be back soon and she was anxious to see how Thomas' first day had gone.

She lay on the grass until she saw Minho and Thomas jog past, "Thomas?" She sits up but the boy turns and waves her off, mouthing 'later'.

So she lies back and waits, almost half an hour later he comes and lies next to her.

"How was it?" She props herself up on her elbows.

"It was okay, tiring but good. Feels good to be doing something, ya know?" He stares at the clouds, watching them go past, "how's today been?"

"Another girl came. Through the Box. She's unconscious and everyone hates me now because I know her."

"A girl?"

"Yeah, that was their reaction. Had a note saying she was the last one and everything."

"Woah."

"Yeah. Everything's going to shit and they reckon it's my fault."

"Is it?" She's surprised at his question and the outright way he said it.

"I have no idea." She answers honestly. "I know her face, but I've no clue where from and I know her name. Teresa."

"Doesn't look good, does it?"

She smirks, "are you always this sensitive?"

"Just telling it like it is."

"Right." She flops back onto the grass next to him.

The next day she's woken early again, this time by Minho.

"Come on Greenie, time to run." At first she thinks it's a threat but then she remembers.

"It's my turn?" She rolls off the hammock and stand up, "when do we leave?"

"After breakfast." He guides her outside to Frypan who hands her a plate, without his usual smile.

"What's with that shank?" Minho remarks, a slight hint of anger in his voice.

"He hates me because I'm evil now apparently." She jokes. Minho looks at her and she rolls her eyes, "everyone thinks I'm behind all this. I don't think I am but my memories could be faked."

"Right. Well, finish up and we'll be going."

She practically licks her plate clean and hands it to Frypan who snatches it from her hand. She shakes her head and sets off with Minho.

He leads her through the Deadheads to a hut she'd not noticed before, inside there were eight chests, each full of paper.

"What is this place?" She whispers in awe.

"It's the Runner hut. We draw maps after everyday of what we've run. But that's not important, I'll find you some trainers." He digs through a big box full of shoes.

"Why do you have so many?"

"We run all day, our shoes get worn pretty quick. We keep a stock." He throws her a pair and she tugs them on.

She looks down at the shoes, "perfect fit."

But Minho isn't listening, he's lifted a trap door and is rummaging around beneath it.

When he comes back up he hands her a machete, "heard you were good with one of these."

She smiles and takes it, tying the sheath it came with round her waist, "thanks."

He takes her through the eight sections, explaining the way they open, one will be open on one day and shut the next. But there's a sequence.

After he explains it to her he straps on a backpack and hands her one.

"Let's get going then." And he runs out the door.

"Into the woods without delay but careful not to lose the way. Into the woods, who knows what may be lurking on the journey? Into the woods to get the thing that makes it worth the journey in. Into the woods-"

She sings as she runs and eventually Minho asks, "the shuck are you doing?"

"Singing."

"Well, don't."

"Sorry."

After a few turns Minho stops, "do you remember the turns we just made?"

She smiles as she recites, "left, left, right, right, left, right."

"And to get back that would be?"

"Left, right, left, left, right, right." She responds.

"Good. You might just make it." But she can tell he's impressed.

He sets off again, they run for a few hours before coming across a vast emptiness.

"What is this?" Ada stares down, she lies down on her belly a sticks her head over the edge, the floor goes all the way down but there's just nothing below that space.

She stands up and dusts herself off.

"It's just a-" Minho pauses, listening out. A moment later and he flings himself against a wall, throwing an arm out to pin her down.

A Griever comes rolling past.

Ada stares, holding her breath. Minho's arm still holding her against the wall but she's so scared she can't move.

They watch as it throws itself off the cliff and disappears through some kind of hole.

"What- What just happened?" She speaks with a hushed tone as if she's scared it might leap back out.

"I don't know."

She bends down and picks up a pebble and throws it into the abyss.

It falls.

She gathers a few and throws, Minho offering directions.

"To the left."

"Up a bit."

"Little further right."

Till they found it.

"I think it's the Griever nest." She whispers, awe in her voice.

"We've gotta tell the others." Minho starts to run again but before he can another Griever swings round the corner.

Frozen in fear Minho stares at it, the Griever crawling towards him. Ada stares, like watching a car crash.

The Griever is almost a metre away from him and he's still frozen, Ada leaps at him. Throwing him to the floor, she rolls them both into the vines at the side and they watch as the Griever strolls past. Only after it has thrown itself off the edge do they two kids let out a breath they hadn't realised they'd been holding.

"Th-thank you." Minho utters, almost so quiet Ada misses it.

They emerge from the vines and set off again, a silent bond going between the two.

Both of them speed up as they get closer to the Glade, just wanting to get back and forget that today happened.

Once they get into the Map room Minho shows her how to mark your page and she draws her map, he gives it a glance over and nods, "not bad for a Greenie."

After they've both drawn their maps they head to find Newt and Alby, "there's a hole. Maybe a way out, Grievers throw themselves in and they disappear."

"Wait, you mean a Griever Hole? Like where they live? And you slintheads want us to go in?" Alby laughs in disbelief, "you've got to be kidding me."

"It's the only way I can think of and frankly, I'm going to go through it even if you won't." Ada announces, "I'm sick of this place so I'll get out in my own way."

"Is that so?" Alby smiles, "go then."

"Tomorrow." She cocks her head, smirks and walks off. The three boys watch her.

"We're not letting her go, right?" Newt looks at Alby and his face drops, "what's your bloody problem with her?"

After a moment Alby looks at the two boys, "I got stung. A few days ago, I went out into the Maze by myself, got into trouble with a Griever. I got myself the serum but I know things now."

"What things?"

"I don't know. But I don't like her." He points to where the girl has flopped herself down. She shuts her eyes and lies so still anybody would think she was dead if it wasn't for the soft rise and fall of her chest.

Alby walks off and Minho and Newt leave him to it, they watch the girl.

"She saved my life, you know. Twice. I trust her." Minho says, not particularly to Newt but not to anyone else either.

"Yeah. Even if it was her, it's not her now. She's not the same person." Newt agrees and he's about to say something when he hears a loud female voice shouting.

"Get away from me! Leave me alone!" He runs with Minho to the Homestead where he sees the girl stood on the roof, throwing rocks at Gladers on the ground. He grabs a piece of scrap metal and holds it over his head.

"Stop! We want to help!" He shouts up, the rocks stop for a moment and he begins to poke his head out from under his cover but another barrage of rocks rain down.

Newt looks around for Minho but the Runner has gone.

"Leave me alone!" The girl repeats.

Newt looks around for anything that might help and sees Minho running over with a pissed off Ada.

"What's happening?" Ada asks, looking like she really doesn't care.

"She's up," a loud clang resonates as a rock hits his cover, he laughs as he says, "I don't think she likes us very much."

Ada and Minho bunch under the cover with him as the girl throws more rocks. The close proximity is strange, apart from brief moments she hadn't been this close to any of the Gladers apart from Gally yet.

It was weird.

Snap out of it!

"Hey! It's Ada, it's Ada." Newt looks round to see Ada standing out in the open, he's about to pull her back in when he notices the rocks have stopped falling.

Ada climbs up the ladder on the side of the Homestead, reaching the roof to find a knife pointing at her.

"It's just me. Alone." She says.

Teresa gestures for Ada to join her.

Ada notes the sheer volume of rocks on the roof, this girl must have had some time. She'd speak to Clint and Jeff later.

"Are you Teresa?" Ada tries.

The girl nods and Ada lets out a long breath. That was both the answer she wanted and the one she didn't.

Because if her name was Teresa, then Ada's memories were false.

If her name wasn't, she was going crazy.

"I'm Ada. I've been here a few days, you came through the box yesterday." She starts but Teresa looks at her in a way that says she knows.

"I remember."

"How much?"

"I remember remembering, it's like I know I knew. But I don't know what I knew." Teresa looks at the boys milling about on the Glade floor, "why are we the only girls?"

"I don't know. I came through the Maze, that's how I got here. I have memories, but not of Wicked or any of that. I have memories of being a 'normal' teenager." Ada picks up a twig and draws on the floor, needing to keep her mind busy with something, this was a little too much for her.

"Wicked is good." Teresa says.

"What?" Ada speaks with such a shock in her voice that Teresa jumps, "Wicked is good? Where did you hear that?"

"It was written on my arm," she pulls back her sleeve to reveal a thick black writing on her arm.

"Oh."

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know." Ada stands up and heads back to the ladder.

"Where are you going?" There is panic in the other girls voice but being near her makes Ada feel nervous, this girl was slowly making it more and more clear that her life was false.

"Away." Ada snaps.

"Why?" Teresa asks, she sounds scared, terrified.

"Because." Ada knows she's being rude but this girl makes her angry, makes her cross. Makes her feel like screaming.

"I know you're scared." Teresa says.

Ada stops dead in her tracks, "what?"

The focus back on her and she shies away, "I can feel it. Like an aura."

Ada wrinkles her nose, "stay away from me." And disappears down the ladder.

Eventually Teresa climbs down as well, step by step.

The knife between her teeth.

"What did you say to Ada?" A British boy approaches her and she whips out the knife.

"I told her what I know."

"And what's that?"

"Wicked is good." She relays the words from her arm and almost instantly sees it was a mistake as the boy's once friendly face turns cold.

"How did you get away from the MedJacks? He said he looked away for a moment and you'd gone."

"Must have forgotten that I kneed him and climbed out the window." She smirks.

The boy looks at her, a strange kind of impressed crosses his face, "you're so much like Ada."

"She doesn't seem to like me much." Teresa says, her blue eyes staring into his.

"Ada? On her first day here she beat up a guy and stabbed him with a pencil, second day she survived a night in the Maze and killed two Grievers." He chuckles, "I don't think she likes many people."

Teresa smiles slightly, "I like her already."

Newt strolls off and Teresa sets out to find Ada.

She comes across her sitting on a log in the woods. She approaches her gingerly.

"Chuck if that's you I swear to God, I'm not in the mood for jokes." Ada shouts into the darkness without looking.

"It's me." Teresa says, "I wanted to say sorry, if I came across too eager. I just- this place freaks me out and I know you. Or I know that I knew you."

The other girl says nothing for a moment but in the end she sighs and says, "Do you remember anything about me? I have memories but I think they're wrong."

"I remember you- you standing. And looking through photos of some of the boys. Nothing solid."

"I'm sorry if I came across rude before, it's just my family. I had a family. But now I find out I didn't. It's like why would they give me all these memories, random family outings, first kisses and then send you here to take them?" Ada's voice is filled with frustration.

"I'm sorry. I don't know."

"What- what year is it for you?" Ada catches the other girls eye. Her eyes are filled with worry and fear.

"2236," Teresa answers but she can tell this isn't the answer Ada wanted, "what is it for you?"

"2015." Ada shakes her head and stands up, "we should go introduce you." She takes Teresa's hand and pulls her along.

Once they're clear of the woods, the Gladers glare at them. Mostly thinking that these girls are the guilty party.

"They think we're evil." Ada laughs dryly, "come on. I'll introduce you to Chuck, he's adorable."

When they find him he's with Newt and Minho, they're talking frantically.

"Hey guys, this is Teresa." They all turn round and stare at the two girls. "What?"

"Have you not noticed?" Newt looks almost angry.

"No? Noticed what?"

"The maze doors. They haven't closed."


	11. Hope

"They haven't closed?" She squeaks.

"And the sky is grey." Chuck adds, everyone turns to stare at him so he quietens down, "sorry."

"What does this mean?"

"The Grievers can get in." Newt's voice sounds more fearful than Ada has ever heard.

"We need to get everyone into Homestead, board up the windows and doors and hide." She says, her brain going at fifty miles a minute.

"I'll start gathering people up." Chuck runs off.

"What the hell are we gonna do? Boarding windows won't keep them out, not for a whole night," Ada runs her hands through her hair, "without the sun we'll starve before long even if we survive tonight."

"Thanks for the bloody optimism," Newt retorts, "just round everyone up."

An hour or two later and every Glader was huddled in the Homestead, it was a few stories high with each floor being something different.

The bottom floor split into two halves, one half was the Slammer and the other was sleeping area, above was the MedJacks and more sleeping area. The Slammer currently had two occupants - Ada and Teresa.

After the Maze doors hadn't closed Alby had sought the pair out and had them thrown in, though frankly, they felt, it was the safest place in the Glade.

The two girls had a weapon each, snuck to them by Thomas, who seemed to have grown fond of Teresa. They were sat beneath each window, knives in hand waiting for a Griever to stick an arm in.

"Are you okay?" Ada whispered across to Teresa, it seemed like a stupid question but it was all she could think of.

"I'm- I'm fine. I think I just heard a Griever." Upon hearing this Ada grips onto her blade tighter me listens. Sure enough she can hear the click of the Grievers as they creep their way around.

She pulled herself onto her knees just in time to see Alby storming across the Glade, "what is he doing?" She squeaked and Teresa peaked through her own window.

"He looks mad,"

"Heard he was Stung, that he has his memories now. He hates me, thinks I'm evil." Ada slumps back to the floor, Teresa reaches out and grasps her hand.

"He doesn't hate you. He's scared, fear makes people do things, things they'd never think of. Right now, Alby is terrified."

Ada curls up in a ball to try and get a few hours of sleep, surprisingly she slips away pretty quickly.

"Ada." Teresa nudges Ada, her voice full of urgency, "the Grievers are here."

The sleeping girl pushes herself up, looking like something out of a zombie movie, she forces herself into her knees so she can pear through the window.

"I think- I think I see Gally. Shit," she curses, "whatever he wants, it can't be good."

But he walks straight past the two girls and into the main part of the Homestead, "he's going for Thomas, isn't he? He must think he's part of this."

The girls wait a minute or two and they hear yelling, crashing and then- nothing.

"Look." Teresa says, her voice full of awe, "Gally's being taken by the Griever."

"Is that Minho?" All Ada can see is one of her only friends from this place sprinting after a group of crazed mechanical machines, "MINHO! MINHO NO!" She throws herself against the door but Teresa pulls her back.

"It's no good, he's gone now. He's strong, he'll come back." The new girl strokes Ada's her like her mother used to and eventually she falls into a dreamless sleep and it's nice.

About half an hour later Thomas' face appears at the bars, "Teresa?"

"I'm here," she says, "Ada's asleep on my lap." The smile in her voice is enough to tell him that they're both fine, "what happened up there? I saw some kid run in, I think Ada called him Gally and then there was crashing and he got taken on a Griever and then Ada went mental because some kid ran out after them."

"Gally came in, yelled some stuff about the Grievers killing us but only one a night and then dived on a Griever. The guy who left with Gally was Minho, he's back now. He just wanted to check something."

"What did he check?"

"If we have a way out."

"And do we?" Teresa was getting annoyed at his blatant vagueness and with his last answer she practically threw Ada off her lap and ran to the bars, the prospect of escaping too much.

"Possibly. But it's dangerous." He runs a hand through his hair, "I've got to go. Someone set the Maps on fire."

Teresa nods and turns to see her friend lying on the floor, an not too pleased look on her face.

Teresa explains everything to Ada who laps up the information, "I guess Minho went to find out if the Grievers took Gally through the Griever hole."

"Griever hole?"

"Yeah, it's the Grievers way out of the Maze, could be ours too."

"You think it's a way out of here?"

"Yeah."

"Then why haven't we tried it already." Ada had been nervous the Glader would shy away from the immense danger the Griever hole presented but she seemed almost excited.

Moments later they can hear voices coming from outside the Slammer, "just let them out!"

"Why should we care about your shuck girlfriend Tommy?" Newt.

"Because she can help, with things." Great argument. Ada thinks, that'll get us free.

Something dawns on Ada "Wait, he's just trying to get you free! The little shit!"

Teresa laughs a little, "hey morons, we can hear you know?"

"Right charmer you've got there." But the doors clang and they're free, Teresa goes to Thomas' side straight away and Ada stands in the doorway.

"We heard about the Griever hole. There being a way out?"

"Yeah, I followed Gally to the hole, it took him right through. Just where we saw the others go. It's our out." Minho says but the others don't seem impressed.

"You want us to jump through a hole, where we've literally seen Grievers go? What if we get in there and there's no way out. Just us stuck with Grievers?" Chuck asks, his voice full of disbelief.

"Chuck, what are you even doing here? This is a meeting, go do something useful." Newt says harshly, the younger Glader slumps off. Ada watches him and once he's fully out of earshot says, "we need to go into the Maze, see if the walls moved overnight."

"What?"

"You want to send people out there?"

"Slinthead."

The barrage of insults flies at Ada and she wait for them to die down before saying, "we need to be sure it hasn't changed, that nothing's opened up overnight. I'm still advocating that we go through the Griever hole but considering other options seems smart too."

"I agree with Ada," Minho says, stepping towards her, "I'll gather the Runners and tell them to pack for overnight. I'll have them running in twos though, don't want anyone getting stuck."

Newt folds his arms and mutters, "fine."

Thomas' face has gone white but he says he'll go.

The three of them set off in search of the others, "Ada, I'll have you with me. Thomas go with Ford." He drifts off, pairing various other Runners together and surprisingly, once they've been gathered, they all agree it's time to delve in.

They set off into the maze and run.

And run.

And run.

Nothing new arises and after hours of exploring the two sections they set off for the Glade. Ada can tell Minho is getting more and more aggravated with each step and eventually he turns to her and yells, "this is useless! We're buggin trapped. They're never letting us out."

She grabs his shoulders, forcing him to look at her, "I know shits rough but those kids, the Gladers, they look up to you. Respect you and they need you to have faith at the moment, okay?" Ada thinks, wracking her brains for anything that may help, "in the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins. Not through strength but through persistence."

Minho just pulls away and runs off, Ada sprints after him.

When they make it back to the Maze they are surprised to find the Gladers hard at work, all of them doing their jobs, I guess it's better than wallowing in self pity, Ada thinks.

Eventually Newt is fetched and he approaches them with a look that begs for hope.

"Did you find anything?"

"No. The Maze is a big shuck joke!" Minho is on the verge of yelling. Ada grips his arm.

"Min, if you're going to have a tantrum, piss off and do it somewhere quiet, where the other Gladers can't hear you but I'd prefer you stayed put. I don't think we can get out of here without you."

Minho pulled his arm away and stomped off to the Homestead.

"Find anything new?"

"Nah, same Maze as yesterday." She shrugs, "Grievers get anyone?"

"Adam." Ada feels bad for not knowing who he was, there was about 50 guys but still. Ada loses herself in her thoughts, when she comes back she realises the ex-Runner had gone.

Her thoughts turn to the hopelessness, she'd tried to have a brave face for the others but really?

She knew they weren't getting out.

The only escape was suicide and she didn't mean the Griever hole.

She sets off, reaching for her machete.


	12. Sacrifice

**A/N trigger warning suicide for the first page or two.**

 **Also, this chapter is kinda choppy so sorry bout that.**

She stumbles through the woods, blood pouring from a horrible wound on her left wrist. She wanted her phone, to be with her fake family in her last moments but she'd left it in the Homestead so she was stumbling her way back through the woods.

She'd held her arm down on a tree stump and stabbed herself. Melodramatic, she knew. But it felt right.

She's made it to the edge of the woods when she hears shouts, screams.

The machete still in her hand she flails it about and it's enough for everyone to back up, they form a circle around her so she has to spin to keep them all away.

Newt shoves his way to the front of the group and his face goes white when he sees her, his hands shoot up, to placate her, show her he's no threat.

But he is, he's a threat to her death.

"A-Ada?" His voice falters.

"Go. Go away." She shouts into the crowd.

"Ada, we're not leaving, okay? I need you to let us help you. That wound is pretty nasty? You're losing blood quickly. Just let Clint and Jeff look at it." His voice is soft and calm but there's a panic building.

"No."

"ADA! I DONT BLOODY NEED THIS RIGHT NOW JUST LET US HELP!" He screams, his normally chilled demeanour gone. The Gladers standing around him look terrified. Through the haze she can see Wolf and Thomas. Teresa and- her vision is going, black spots appear.

"Just leave me alone. This is all hopeless, there is one person dying every fucking day and we're sitting here like fish in a fucking barrel. You don't need this? Go do something more useful then?" She laughs, "that's right! There's no fucking use, there's no way out is there? Nope."

"Ada we've got the Griever hole. That's always an option."

"You mean sending a bunch of children into a hole full of monsters? That's always going to go well."

"Ada, I know you're scared but becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear. I'm scared too but I'm using that fear, using it to motivate myself, using the idea of the fear in the faces of the Creators when they see us come through this. When they see us standing in front of them, with fire in our eyes."

"We are clever but we are clueless, we have no idea how to get out. We have no freaking idea." By this point Ada has started to flag, every moment or two she staggers and stumbles. Her face is pale, they know she doesn't have long.

"Ada, when you want to defeat your enemy you don't take away their courage you take away their hope - that's what they're doing to you. They want you dead, don't let them. Don't let those people have you die for nothing. Don't let those people kill you, they've stripped you of your hope we can see that but why don't you take it back? Why don't you grab hold and let us help you? We'll go through the Griever hole with you and we'll be free yeah? But right now, I need you to let Clint come over and stitch you up, okay?" Newt had been edging towards her and by the time he'd finished speaking he was close enough to grab her. "Help her."

But she let them, she let the sew her up because she had a plan, one to tell her exactly how to get out.

When she wakes up she's strapped to a chair, her arm is bandage but she fights against the bonds before remembering something, something she saw in a TV show.

She throws the chair back.

The chair breaks and she pulls herself from the bonds.

She goes downstairs, and the second she leaves the Homestead Gladers stare, soon Newt is summoned and he approaches her with caution, "Ada..." He warns.

"I'm fine, I just went a little funny. Sorry." She gives him her most genuinely apologetic look.

"Are you sure?"

She smiles, "I'm fine, see smiling. What's new?"

He seems to believe her, "since you've been asleep we've lost one more Glader. We don't know what to do but now you're up you can help."

"How's Teresa?"

"She's fine. Alby's had her in the Slammer since your... upset but I've had Chuck sneak her food."

She smiles, he's a good guy.

"What?"

She smirks, "didn't know you were such a softie."

He smiles a little and walks off.

She asks a Glader for the time and finds out it's 4:40.

Twenty minutes till the Grievers came.

Twenty minutes.

She sets off to find a suitable place to hide, knowing that getting herself locked in the Slammer wouldn't work. A Griever wouldn't be able to get in but being locked in with a Stung person wouldn't be fair for Teresa.

She hides in a cupboard in the Homestead, they wouldn't have enough time to search for her. She'd have to hope nobody who liked her ended up in that room. She could put their lives in danger.

Twenty minutes pass and the cupboard starts to feel hot and muggy but the Gladers have already packed themselves in and she can't risk moving until it's the right moment.

About an hour passes and she can hear her name being passed around the room, they know she's not locked up.

She can't make out any particular voices though because a hush suddenly comes over the room. Ada's heart skips a beat, have they found me?

But she hears the distinct click of a Griever.

It's my time to shine, she thinks as she throws herself from the cupboard. Not stopping to look around the room she bolts for the door, down the stairs and out the door.

Foot steps pound down the stairs and she's sure she heard Newt.

But she can't stop to explain.

She runs full pelt towards a Griever and searches out its Stinging Arm.

She dances round the Griever, begging it to aim for her.

"Ada?" Newt cries out. She can see him, about 10 feet away from the Griever.

"Newt, get back!"

"Ada please, this isn't the answer!"

Oh my god, he thinks I'm trying to kill myself again. She would laugh if she weren't, you know, face to weird bulbous mass with a Griever.

"Just go!"

"No!"

"Newt, I will be able to do this but I need you to back the fuck off!" He seems to get the idea and he stumbles a back.

The Griever starts stabbing at her with its grabbing claw. She dodges and ducks her way to the Stinger.

And throws herself on it.

She feels herself fading but manages to stumble her way back to the Homestead, Newt's arm round her holding her up.

She blacks out almost the second she passes the threshold.

Wicked is good.

The Maze is a code.

Griever hole.

Teresa.

The Gladers.

Water.

Lift.

Glade.

Those things circle her mind until she wakes, rubbing her eyes.

The moment she shows signs of being awake Newt is on her, yelling in her face.

"What the bloody hell did you do that for?!"

She smiles weakly, "I did it on purpose."

She can almost feel his eyes widen, "you did it on purpose-" he begins to yell but he must realise her intent and a beaming grin crosses his face, "that's brilliant."

He helps her to sit up and she tells him what she saw.

"The Griever hole, it's out way out. If we take the numbers, the order of the numbers the Glade opens. There's a door in the Griever hole if we can get to it, put the code in. We'll be free."

"Free?" Newt almost laughs with joy.

"Yeah, did the Grievers come whilst I was gone?" Ada almost doesn't want to know.

"They got Zart and a few others."

"Zart. No." She didn't like him much but Wolf had already lost Mo. Losing Zart, that would kill him.

"Don't worry about Wolf. He's a strong lad."

"Strong is a front. You show strong but on the inside I bet he's screaming."

"Well, now we've got a way out. We'll be dandy," he smirks and pats her leg, "I'll get you some food you look like klunk."

"Thanks," she chuckles. It was good to see someone smiling.

A little while later she hears pounding steps coming towards her, the door flings open and Teresa almost dives on her.

"That was stupid you know? Really stupid." But Ada can tell she's in the clear.

"I had to."

"Did you at least get anything useful?"

"I know how to get out." When she says this Teresa pulls back, her blue eyes full of shock.

"You what?"

"I can get us out of here." Ada laughs.

"Then go." Teresa smiles and Newt comes in with a plate of food. Teresa leaves them

Once Ada has filled herself up with food she turns to Newt, "I need to call a Gathering. Tell everyone what's going on."

Newt nods, "already called one. They're just waiting on you."

She stands and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, "let's go then."

The Meeting Room feels empty without Gally and Zart and she notes, Wolf isn't there, she'd have to check on him later, and the other Keepers look upon Ada as though it's her fault, which it is.

She opens her mouth to start but Alby snaps, "don't go beating around the bush. I want it straight."

She sighs before starting, "the Maze is a test. They throw Variables at us and see how we cope, who gives up, who motivates everyone - that kind of thing. There isn't an 'exit' to the maze but there is a way out."

"Stop talking in riddles shank." Alby snaps, "I know what I know. Tell us what you know. What you got from the Changing."

"The Griever hole, that's our escape. A lot of us will die but I think that's the point. It's what they want. Survival of the fittest." She smiles at the thought of Chuck, little Charles Darwin.

"So you're saying they want us dead?" Alby said, she can tell he's being difficult but she's determined not to let it get to her.

"No. They want the best to succeed. And we were right about the names, they weren't our birth names they were given to us - some kind of way for Wicked to see us as lab rats I guess."

"Your saying we were orphans raised by scientists or something?" Frypan looks heartbroken.

"Yes. They took us from somewhere and raised us, in special schools till they could fund the Maze. We're supposedly the smartest of the kids in the schools, this is some experiment and they're measuring our brain waves and watching what we do. They wanted to see if we could build a community, how we'd run it. If we'd carry on fighting against the Maze or if we'd realise early that there wasn't an escape."

"What do you mean?" This is the first time Winston has spoken since the meeting began, "no escape!p? I thought you said there was a way out."

"The Griever hole. I already said, but that won't be the end to it. If we go through the Griever hole they've got more klunk building up on the other side. More Variables." She pauses, "I'm still going through. Rather face out there than in here."

"Right." Newt says, he'd been listening patiently, taking it all in, "I say we go through the Griever hole."

"You can be serious." Alby snaps.

"Deadly. I want out of here, this is the first clue we've had since we've been here. I'm going to talk to the Gladers. I'll explain it, the hole shucking thing if I have to and they can decide but me and Ada? We're going."

"You can't go back!" Alby screams.

"Are you jacked?" Newt's face is the picture of worry.

"We can't go back." Alby mutters.

"What's wrong with you man? Two years you been preaching escape but now? Now we have a way out you're telling me we should sit on our behinds?" Newt scoffs, "what did you see when changed?"

"I saw the world. It's dead." Alby had tears streaming down his face, "the world is a dead shrivelled hell. We'd be better of dead."

"Alby, you don't mean that," Newt warns.

"I do. I'd kill you right now if I could." At this the Keepers start darting for the door until Ada, Minho and Newt are left.

"Alby, listen to me, we're a team now. A family. We can get through this." Ada uses her best calm voice but she knows he's gone, long past help.

"You put us here. You remember that don't you? You're no family of ours, you're the devil. You and that girl out there, it's all you."

"She's not the person she was. She's a better person now and I'm with Ada." Newt plants a hand on her shoulder.

"If we stay here, we all die. Nothing's worse than that." Minho screams at the empty shell of his friend.

"It's better to die in here than Flare up out there."

"Well, aren't you a bundle of sunshine." Minho smirks, he knows his friend has gone, "if we're gonna die? We're gonna do it fighting."

Ada smiles, knowing she has the two best Leaders, beside Alby, on her side, "we still live in the world you saw, Alby. Remember that."

The old Leader says nothing but spits on the floor at their feet, "that's your fault then."

The three Gladers walk out of the hut and search out the other Keepers, fortunately they've huddled themselves into a room in the Homestead.

"We're going." Newt says, flinging the door open.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. I'm going through if it kills me and these two both seem keen. I'm sure Thomas and Teresa are in if we ask. And I have a theory," this was the part Ada had been dreading she knew Newt would object but she had to tell them.

"What theory?"

"I think we've established we can only die one a day, right?" She says, pausing for effect, "well, if one Glader sacrifices themselves for everyone else then we'll be fine, right?"

Now everybody looked at her as if she was nuts.

"So you suggest we throw some poor sucker to the wolves?" Winston says, he looked flat confused.

"Yes. And I know who it should be, me." She was fully confident in her theory but the moment the word left her lips Newt spun her towards him.

"No. I won't let you." His forehead was almost brushing hers, this would be romantic if he wasn't preventing her suicide.

"If I don't some other Glader could die."

"You're leaving." He grabs her hand and pulls her out of the Homestead, "you go wait by the Box. I'll come over once we're finished in here. We need some time for a reasonable discussion without you offering yourself for human sacrifice every five minutes."

"Fine." She crosses her arms and walks off.


	13. Rescue

Ada sits with her legs dangling into the Box, waiting for Newt.

She's bored out of her skull because she's already finished her book and her phone lost charge whilst she was out.

She flops back onto the grass, soaking in the- grey. She chuckles softly to herself.

She must have fallen asleep because she wakes later with Newt stood over her.

"Rise and shine," he beams, "this is bloody mad you know?" She holds out a hand and he pulls her up.

"So they agreed?" A nervous excitement bubbles inside her and she shuffles from foot to foot.

"Yeah. Wasn't as hard as I thought, they're all reasonable when it comes to it. They seen what happens in here at night. We leave in an hour, figured nights the best time to leave since the Grievers'll be here and it has to be tonight. Don't want anymore Gladers getting killed right?" He talks as if this is a normal conversation but his face dons a serious expression as he says, "but no more of this sacrificial klunk, yeah? We all go and we all take a risk."

She nods and they both set off, collecting food and weapons for the night ahead.

Turned out that the Gladers were, in the most part, easily persuaded to come.

Ada and Teresa were tasked with filling up bottles along side Chuck, who looked absolutely terrified. Ada came back every few minutes, after handing out water bottles to the Gladers, to collect some more. Teresa and Chuck would fill the bottles them load them up for her.

Minho and some Runners had gone to check if the Griever hole was still open, throwing vines and the like at the hole. Frankly Ada just wanted to jump in there now and punch in the code they'd taken from the Maps but she knew waiting was smart. The less Grievers there were in the hole the more chance they all had.

Eventually the time came.

The Gladers who were staying behind lurked, glaring at the small army. They'd been trying to persuade them that they were stupid, that they'd die but they'd soon learnt to shut up.

As Ada walks Chuck finds her, "I'm not scared. The past few nights in the Homestead? They were the worst things I could have ever done. Now? It feels like we're taking the fight to them. Like we're doing something."

Ada beams and claps a hand on Chuck's back, "that's the spirit, kid."

Teresa and Thomas walk side by side, they could almost be twins. The hair and their faces? Almost identical.

Newt stops and gathers everyone around him, Ada notices Alby in the crowd - he seems unstable, she vows to keep her eye on him. He could end up getting them all killed.

"There's forty one of us and we don't know how many of them but we're going to fight because if we don't we're dead anyway. Keep your weapons close and your friends closer. We just need to fight long enough for Ada and friends to punch in their magic code and then it's all gravy. We'll get out. Kick the Creators where it hurts. Sorted."

"Shouldn't somebody give a pep talk?" Minho asks.

"Go ahead," Newt offers him the floor with a dramatic gesture.

"Be careful. Don't die." Ada snorts.

"Great, we're all bloody inspired," Newt says dryly. Minho smirks. "Remember what we've been through the past few years. Remember the pain of seeing friends die, good people. Remember all that, hold that fire until we are facing the Creators. Tonight we're coming for them. Tonight the Grievers gonna hide." It's an impressive speech, Ada thinks, he would have made a good politician, she laughs and adds, are there any?

Suddenly she hears Wolf scream, a loud guttural war cry. One by one Gladers join him, holding their weapons above their heads. Ada just glances at Newt who stands, observing. She raises an eyebrow and he smiles slightly.

When they set off Ada pushes her way to the front, to walk with Newt.

"Scared?" She asks once she's reached him.

"No, I bloody love the steel Devils."

"We'll get out okay. I promise-"

"Don't promise things you can't keep."

When they reached the Cliff she glanced at the boy next to her, "ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Ada waits a moment, before leaning back and readying herself to jump but Newt grabs the back of her shirt and pulls her back with ease. She spins to ask him why but realises Alby has just ran at the Cliff.

He is mobbed, six or seven Grievers roll at him from both sides, claws flying and diving.

Ada feels Newt tense, she grabs his arm but he starts to run to his friend.

She grabs him and, with Minho's help, holds the boy back.

The worst part of watching Alby get torn to shreds - he didn't make a sound. Not a sound.

As suddenly as it started, it was over. She releases Newt, who sinks to his knees, she crouches down next to him.

"Newt, I-"

"Don't. Don't say anything. I'm going to tear each one of those klunk Grievers apart and then I'm doing the same to every member of Wicked.

A fire has been lit behind his eyes and she knows he means it.

It hurt Ada, seeing Alby like that. He was a good guy and he'd sacrificed himself, for the Gladers.

Minho grabs Newt's arm and pulls him up, "we should set off. They'll be dormant for a few minutes and we may be able to get through without losing anyone else."

"How can you be so heartless? Alby's dead." Newt says, his voice full of hatred and anger.

"Yes. And so will we be if we don't move. Alby sacrificed himself, for us. We'd be heartless if we wasted this chance."

And with that, they set off.

When they were about an inch or two from the edge the Grievers leapt at them, metal arms flying and flailing and it became quickly apparent that Alby's sacrifice had failed. The Gladers retreated but knew they had to fight.

Newt reacted quickly, grabbing Minho and yelling straight in his ear, "get the girls to the Griever hole. That's all that matters."

Minho gave a slight nod and gestures for the pair to follow. As Ada walks away from him he grabs her arm and spins her to face him. He pulls her in, so their faces are touching but before anything can happen Minho grabs her arm, "not the time." He shouts, he bats Griever claws away and the girls stabbed Grievers here and there but really, it was a bloodbath. Gladers fell all around them and Ada wished she knew their names, so she had someone to mourn.

When they were back at the edge, Ada threw a stone and when it disappears she points to where it went, "that's where we aim."

Teresa gets the idea and nods, her face set in a fierce determination. Chuck appears at her shoulder and Ada smiles and whispers to Teresa, "take Chuck's hand. Bring him with us."

She nods and does so, Chuck looks surprised but flooded with relief.

The three leap together and disappear through the hole.

On the other side it seems quiet in comparison to the carnage they'd just come through, too quiet.

They walked over to the panel on the wall and Teresa started typing in the numbers she had memorised.

As she types Ada watches the Griever hole, machete held above her head. A Griever plops through the hole in an almost comical fashion.

"Teresa, keep typing. Don't listen to me, no matter what. Just type." Almost immediately after she says this Thomas jumps through the hole.

The boy lands on the Griever and slices at the claws as they come his way.

Ada watches in awe as the boy maims the Griever into uselessness.

Thomas looks up with a goofy grin on his face as another Griever follows the last.

They both set to work, slicing and chopping and just as the bot is about to stab Thomas in the gut - it stops.

"I did it!" Teresa yells.

A door slides open and the room is lit up.

One by one Gladers come through the hole.

By Ada's count there's 16.

"Where are the others?" She pleads with Newt, begs there to be something else but he just shakes his head.

She closes her eyes and a tear falls. Her body begins to jerk and she knows she's on the verge of s break down.

There had been forty one.

Now there was sixteen.

Twenty five Glader had died.

And Ada didn't even know their names.

Sudden fear washes over her, she searches the faces of the survivors, "where's Wolf? Where is he?" She turns on Newt and Minho, "where is he?"

"He-" Newt won't look her in the eye, "he leapt on a Griever. Yelling about how it was the one who killed his brother. It rolled of with him."

"There was nothing we could do. It was hard enough keeping them out of the hole." Minho says, his voice genuine for once, "I'm sorry."

Her jaw sets, all she feels is anger. Pure anger. "Let's go give them Hell." She grips her machete and stalks out of the door that opened, the Gladers have nothing to do but follow them.

She came across a slide, it almost seemed funny.

Before anyone could object she jumped and kicked forward, flying into it.

As she went she hooted and yelled, this was probably the most fun she'd be having in a while and she wanted to enjoy it.

She got to the bottom and yelled up, "I'm okay. Come down." She got herself well out of the way of the bottom and glanced around.

She saw computers.

People sitting at them, in suits. As if this was the most normal thing to be happening.

Yells from behind her inform her the others are on their way.

Once everyone is through they stand up and glance around.

Minho yells obscenities at the workers who do nothing.

And a woman enters.

She looks empty.

Like a stone.

On her shirt it says 'Wicked'.

This is enough for Ada who dives at her only to be grabbed, again by Newt. Who holds her next to him. "Ada, these people have weapons."

She notices the gun strapped to the woman's side. The man behind her, in a hoodie pulled over his fave.

"Too much of a coward to face us unarmed," she spits.

"Miss Lovelace," the woman acknowledges but doesn't respond, "welcome back. Two years, so few dead."

"Are you shitting me?" Ada struggles against Newt's grip, "twenty five people died today. Twenty five. And it's on you!" Ada gives one final tug and breaks free from Newt.

She lunges at the woman but the man stood behind her steps forward and bats her away.

"Ada!" Chuck runs to her side. They boy steps back and the woman removes the hood.

Gally.

His face covered in tears.

He looks mad.

"Hey! Slintheads! We want to see the president or the police!" Minho shouts at the woman who looks back with the expression a mother shows when she is about to scold her child.

"I'd expect more maturity from someone who passed the Maze Trials, boy. One day you will stand and applaud at the work we've done for you, there is one more Variable." At this the woman steps aside.

Ada has been watching the scene from the floor, "Gally? We haven't alway gotten along but whatever it is-"

"They- can- control- me." He speaks as if every word is a battle.

"Gally, what-" she begins but it becomes abruptly clear as a knife flies at her.

And then?

Chuck.

Lying across her.

Bleeding.

"No. No. Nonononono." She speaks, her words becoming frantic. The Gladers swamp him.

"Thomas, find my parents. Like you said we would. Tell them-" but he doesn't finish. The boy is gone.

Ada stands, glaring at the boy behind the knife.

"You." She shakes her head, "of all the things you did? This- this is the worst." She yells, "you're a monster." She screams as she flies though the air, landing on top of him.

Gally lay there whilst Ada hit him.

Again.

And again.

And again.

The woman from Wicked merely stood and watched, a small smile on her face. As if that was what she'd wanted.

Ada punched.

Releasing the anger that coursed through her veins.

Every time she nearly slowed she thought of Chuck, of his face as he dived in front of her and she punches again, harder and angrier.

But then as quickly as it happened it's over.

Newt and Minho have the flailing girl in their arms, pulling her away from the boy.

Her legs flying all over the place, her yells almost animal.

She screamed and cried.

She'd hardly even known him.

That was what hurt most.

She'd never made the effort because they were always going to be free, then they'd have all the time.

And now, he was dead.

The energy just fell from her. And she becomes a dead weight so suddenly the boys drop her.

And she cries, loud and embarrassingly but she doesn't care.

Eventually, she has drained herself of tears and she looks up and there stands Teresa.

The girl helps her to stand and the woman from Wicked smiles, "everything happens for a reason."

Ada balls her hands, digging her nails into her palms to prevent from maiming this woman.

Before anyone can stay anything a series of gunshots rings out and the woman falls to the floor. Ada smiles.

The other Wicked members stand and run, trying to avoid the sudden overtaking by a group of grubby looking men and women.

Soon everyone is dead, except the Gladers who are completely unscathed.

A man approaches the group and says, "we don't have time to explain. Just follow us and run like hell."

And they do, when they get out into the sun there's a bus, old dirty looking one.

They pile in and settle down.

Ada rests herself against the side, nobody sits next to her.

And if anyone had she would have told them to move.

She sobs quietly to herself as the bus moves, bobbing about through pot holes and over sand dunes.

The others talk to their rescuers but Ada blocks out the noise. She doesn't care anymore.

She sees them glance at her, whisper but she just shuts her eyes.

 **A/N what do you think of this chapter? Should Ada stay with group A or end up in group B with Teresa? Or maybe she ends up alone? What do you think?**


	14. Sanity

**A/N trigger warning - dead bodies and gore**

Once the bus pulls to a stop outside a large complex everyone piles out.

Ada stays in her seat, she just doesn't care.

She just wants to stay here till she dies.

Newt comes back and holds out a hand, "we've got to go. They need everyone off the bus."

She takes his hand and allows herself to be pulled from the bus.

He squeezes her hand then let's go when they're amongst the other boys. One of the staff approaches him, "is she okay? She seems a little..."

"Yeah. Her friend got killed by one of our own before you got there, she flipped out. Dived at the guy and pummelled him."

The man gives her a sympathetic look and gives her shoulder a pat, "that's rough. Sorry sweetie."

Once he's says sweetie Ada lifts her head and glares at him, the man backs off quickly and addresses the whole group, "we know you've been through a lot so we'll feed you up, give you a fresh set of clothes and then bed."

A ripple of excitement ripples through the group. Ada smiles for a second but she thinks of Chuck again, his body still lying at the Wicked place.

He deserved better.

When they enter the complex they are handed to a group of well-groomed men and women, who get them to shower with the promise of food after.

Teresa and Ada head to the 'girls' side of the complex and strip off, without inhibitions. They are both sweaty and dirty and tired. Modesty is a luxury right now and neither girl can afford to waste energy.

Right now, the prospect of food is enough to get them moving quick.

After the shower the enter the girl's room to find clothes laid out for them, clean underwear and everything.

They put the clothes on and Ada sits down on the bed.

When Teresa realises she's not coming she shoots the girl a worried look, "are you coming?"

Ada shakes her head and lies down.

"I'll bring you something." And she leaves.

Teresa walks into the main area, the boys are there with matching clothes.

When Teresa clocks that there's no food she gives them a quizzical look, "What's going on?"

"They said they're getting the food. Where's Ada?" Minho asks, the boy has laid himself across a whole sofa, leaving no room for anybody else so Teresa sits on the floor with Thomas.

"She's not hungry."

"She hasn't eaten in ages, last time she ate was when she came out of the Changing, even then she was weak. I'll try and get her out." Newt stands and begins to head towards the door where he knows Ada lies but as he reaches for the door a member of staff puts a hand in front of the door.

"I need to see my friend."

"She's gone." The staff says, expressionlessly.

"What? What do you mean?" Newt starts to panic and he shoves the woman out of his way and tries the door. It's locked.

He starts banging his hands against the door.

"Ada! Ada! Are you in there?"

The other Gladers have started getting up, "what's up Newt?"

"Minho, they've taken her. She's gone!" When the boy hears this he joins his friend.

"Ada! Ada open up."

"Don't think you want to be doing that." The man from earlier has entered the room, he displays a gun threateningly, "you'll be with her soon enough but for now, we got food."

Almost as if it had been rehearsed the squeaky clean staff start pouring out of doors with pizza and fizzy pop.

The Gladers sit down and eat, Newt tries to object but he takes the food because he needs the strength to find Ada.

He doesn't know why but she feels like a part of him. They shared something in the Glade and he can't afford to lose her now.

This was all going to hell.

He ate the pizza and drank the pop and when the people told him it was time for bed he went.

He would need the sleep.

And he does just that.

He falls asleep straight away.

When Ada wakes up she realises Teresa never came back to the room last night. She sits up and rubs her eyes. The room is bright and clinical and there's a funny smell to it.

Ada gets up and goes to the bathroom, _funny_ , she thinks, _I'm sure there was two sinks yesterday_.

Once she's washed, she heads back into the room and looks around, _one bed? Weird._

She walks to the door but it's locked.

"Shit." These are the first word she's spoken since she woke up and it only succeeds in echoing her loneliness.

Glancing round the room she finds a fire extinguisher and uses it to hit the handle from the door. When she gets out into the main area the boys aren't there, just a man.

"Mr Janson?" Ada whimpers, this man he had been there when she was born. She remember seeing his little ratty face.

"That's AD Janson to you, Miss Lovelace." His voice is calm and steady.

"What's going on? Where are the others?" She shouts, she runs at the man and is thrown back by an invisible force field. She continues smacking her fists on the invisible wall but nothing comes of it.

"Dead."

At this Ada stops. "What?"

"They died a long time ago, Miss Lovelace. You've been in a coma. For twenty years." The man shows her a calendar and sure enough, twenty years.

He holds up a mirror that had been sitting on the table, she looks at herself.

 _Thirty seven_ , she thinks, _my god. I look awful._ She puts a hand to her face. _No. He's lying. He has to be._

"No... no. I can't have been. I'm awake. Wide awake, people in comas come out of them tired. Right?" Ada starts pacing.

Back and forth. And back and forth.

"We brought you back slowly, to make sure you were awake when you came out."

"No."

"Yes, Miss Lovelace. Yes. They died."

"You asshole!" She yells throwing herself at the force field, "you complete asshole."

She sits on the floor, back to the man.

She remains like that, sobbing for what feels like hours.

Then all of a sudden she falls back.

The man yells out but Ada is up, she grabs the mirror and slams it on his head.

He collapses onto his desk, blood pouring from her head.

Ada smiles.

She runs to the other room and smashes her way into the boys room, hoping to see them.

But what she sees is something quite different.

The room is torn to shreds.

On the wall are markings, days passed.

The marks carry on for a while but stop with scribbles of anger.

She looks round, the floor is covered in bones.

Blood everywhere.

The pyjamas they were given the day before torn to shreds.

Blood splatters on the walls.

"No..."

Ada heaves into the corner.

The bodies, the room stinks and she runs into the bathroom to splash her face with water.

What she finds there is worse than any thing she saw in the sleeping quarters.

Hanging from the ceiling is Newt.

Bedsheets had been tied together to make a noose and he hangs.

His long hair covers his face but she knows it's him, she begins to wander how long he's been dead for but decides that pondering helps no one and looks away.

She glances round the room and sees Minho, in the corner, his wrists have been sliced.

She runs to him.

"No. No, no. No!" She yells, punching a wall on the final no.

Her fist comes away bloody and she knows it's broken but it doesn't hurt.

She looks at Newt's body and notices a sheet of paper, scrunched into his hand.

She scrabbles to take it and opens the note.

'Dear Ada,

This is your fault. They gave you a chance to prove yourself and you did nothing.

I hate you. I loathe you.

And I hope to see you in Hell.

N.'

 _What? Prove myself? I just woke up._

Reading the note over and over but she just ends up hurting more.

Her heart crumbles in on itself.

"No." She collapses against a wall, the weight of seeing her friend's dead bodies killed her.

She lies there for hours in a numb state of shock before eventually pushing herself up.

 _I have to get out, I have to escape from this hell. That man will be awake soon and he won't be happy._

She stands up and goes to the windows, they are a floor above ground level but she should be able to make it. She strips the remaining bedsheets and makes a rope which she ties to one of the bunks, they're nailed down so it should work.

 _Why didn't the boys think of this? Why would they lie around doing nothing?_ But before her thoughts become too dark she shakes her head and blocks them out. Thinking like that helps no one.

Ada lowers herself down the wall and unties the last sheet - she uses it as a shade and runs.

She doesn't know where she's going but - for now - away seems like a good plan.

She runs and runs until she can't run anymore.

Throwing herself down in the sand she screams and yells.

Pounding her fists into the sand, not caring about her broken hand.

Once her energy is gone she stands, keep moving. There has to be sanity out here somewhere.


	15. Dead

Ada walks until the storm begins, she looks around and spots a city which she runs towards. The buildings look broken and she doesn't know how well protected she'll be in there but at least she won't be outside.

As she runs bombs go off around her, explosions knock her off her feet more than once but she keeps going, keeps running.

The closest building is about a hundred feet away now and she pushes herself, her muscles are screeching but she pushes until she can throw herself through the broken door of a dilapidated office building.

She leans her head against the post holding the building up but upon realising it is, in fact, metal she crawls away quickly. Ada curls up in the middle of the room and sleeps. She is weak and exhausted, her last food was after the Changing and even then it wasn't a big meal, just what Newt could scrape together.

Newt.

Just thinking of him hurts.

Ada collapses to sleep pretty easily and her dreams are riddled with Ben's screams and her imagination depicts the battle for the Griever hole.

Boys falling and dying.

Screaming.

Blood.

Wolf...

"Ungh..." Someone is shaking her, "ugh..." She rolls over but a sharp kick brings her back to her senses.

She sits up, angrily rubbing her side whilst glaring at the person behind the foot. It's a young Hispanic man, maybe a little older than Ada, little younger than Ada. She had to remember, she's an adult now. Thirty seven, she needed to start acting like it.

"Who are you?" The man looks at the girl, unimpressed.

"My name's Ada. Who're you?" She pushes herself to her feet.

"Name's Jorge. I'm the Crank who runs this place." He holds his arms out as if this is impressive but Ada doesn't even know what a Crank is.

"Got any food?" Jorge inspects the girl, she looks weak and near death.

"Why should we give you any?"

Ada sneers, "the goodness of your heart?"

Laughs echo above her and she glances up, maybe thirty people look down on her, all ages and races. Male and female.

"Ain't no goodness left, hermano."

"Just give me some food and I'll go. I haven't eaten in days." She whines, if they think she's just a weak little female maybe they'd help.

"What makes you think we want you gone? Maybe we eat you." He grins.

Shit.

Ada had heard of this, stranded people going mad and eating other people but the idea of being eaten?

No.

A girl, about seventeen, dropped down and landed next to Jorge, "Jorge, knock it out. She's just a kid."

"A kid?" Ada whispers, "but I'm thirty seven!"

More laughter.

"Then you'll have to tell me your skin care regiment," he laughs cruelly.

"They told me- the mirror?" She falls against a wall, "My friends are dead!" She yells and throws her broken hand against the floor. Pain shoots through her body and she yells out.

"Chill. Ada was it?" The girl asks, "I'm sorry bout your friends. We'll get you some food and you can stay here another night if you need to." Mild protests echo around the room but Jorge shoots his friends a look and they stop.

The girl hands Ada a can of food and Ada pulls it open. She swallows the contents in a minute and mutters thanks to the girl before shutting her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

Hours later and the sun is setting.

Ada pulls herself up and the girl from before approaches her, "you okay? Never seen anyone eat so quick." She laughs.

"Yes. Thank you for the food," she mutters, not feeling like a conversation but knowing she owes this stranger her life.

"You don't look old, you know. It's hard to tell through the sand and stuff but you don't look like an adult." The girl observes, Ada doesn't trust her. She may have saved her life but that doesn't mean she's telling the truth.

Ada looks at her feet, she doesn't want to respond and the girl pats her arm.

"If I were you, I'd be going. The other Cranks here aren't too happy about you being here and they really aren't happy that you got our food."

"Sure." Ada nods and notices that some of the other 'Cranks' are staring at her, muttering, "Thanks." Ada waves at the girl who shrugs off her thanks and climbs out the shattered door frame.

She walks again, through the broken city.

It looks like an apocalypse movie, she thinks, like the world has ended. Which it had.

Ada explored the city, she didn't have anywhere to be and she needed to find some food and water because she didn't know how long she'd last on that can of whatever.

As she walks she inspects her surroundings, broken buildings, dead bodies. That was it.

As Ada turns down an alleyway, to where a big van waits, she thinks of the food that could be inside-

THOMAS YOU ARE THE REAL LEADER

A sign on the wall.

To Thomas?

No. That's impossible.

Dead Thomas.

A thump thump of what Ada thinks could be drums starts up.

She almost laughs in disbelief, music? In such a desolate, empty world?

Of all things, music was something she never thought she'd hear again.

She strolls towards the source of the music.

Eventually Ada came across a set of stairs into what she guesses is a basement with a busted window, she crouches down to look through and sees a room full of people, they're jumping and writhing to the music. The stench of alcohol flows from the room and Ada backs away quickly.

If she could sneak in she could hunt out some food and water whilst the drunk people grind on each other.

She decides it's not a worth it and begins to back away but she only makes it a few feet when a gun presses into her back.

"Go. Into the party." A man's voice.

She stumbles forwards into the party and oddly enough no one seems to notice anything strange. The gun is pulled away when she gets into the middle of the dancing bodies and she is left for a moment before someone returns with a drink.

She eyes the funny looking substance and hands it back, "sorry, not much of a drinker."

The drink is thrust back into her hand and a blond haired man pulls his gun back out, "drink."

Closing her eyes she downs the liquid and minutes later she is stumbling and tripping and then-

THOMAS!

She tries to shout for her - now alive? - friend but the words are stolen before they leave her mouth.

She stumbles back and blacks out.

"Wake up!" Somebody yells into her face.

She screams out in shock.

The Blondie was laughing with his two friends, a man and a woman.

Blondie smiled at her, "what do you know about those signs?"

"Nothing."

"Tell us or I'll shoot you in the leg. Then the other one. Then your arm. Then your friends." He laughs.

"My friends are dead," Ada says.

"Hm. Well, we'll shoot these two Cranks then." Blondie points his gun behind her where she assumes two more prisoners are held.

"Fine." She says, trying to show the hatred through her face.

A shot rings out before she knows what's happening. A bullet has gone through her leg. Strangely her leg doesn't hurt, it's like the adrenaline coursing through her veins is keeping her sane.

The man cocks his head to the side, "see."

"I knew a shuck named Thomas." Hopefully she can slide by without giving too much away, these people seem unstable.

"Knew?" Blondie asks, shock resonating through his voice.

"He died. Saw his dead body myself." That was a stretch of the truth, but really, she'd seen enough body parts in that room for one of them to be Thomas.

"Died you say?"

"Yes. Along with my other friends." Ada's heart breaks, that note Newt left... It had been so cruel.

"Wait here," Blondie mocks. Him and his friends walk off.

"No! No! You have to bandage my leg!" But they walk off.

Ada knows if something doesn't happen soon she's going to die.

She thinks of her dead friends.

Of Newt's note.

She had a chance to prove herself?

Had she?

Whilst she was out she'd had some whacked dreams but had one of them been real?

Could she have stopped the deaths of her friends?

The hot feeling of blood seeping down her leg brings her back to reality.

Got to do something.

The chair! It's wooden.

She pulls the same trick as she did back in the Glade, throws her chair back and stifles her screams. The pain of the gunshot and from punching the wall intensifying greatly as she slams into the floor.

She pulls some material from her trouser leg and wraps it round her calf, praying that it had been a clean in-out shot and creeps to the door.

Ada inches the door open and slides through, tip toeing her way up each step, she makes it to the room she was in earlier when she hears talking. She lies down amongst the bodies on the floor, trying to camouflage herself.

"You didn't have to shoot the kid!" That was the woman.

"She needed to know we're serious." Blondie speaks gruffly.

They stomp back downstairs and Ada listens as they discover she's gone - that doesn't seem to be of too much concern because nobody returns.

Some of the party goers wake up and start drinking again, Ada decides her best course of action is to wait for a moment to escape.

She can hear people shouting downstairs, they must have some other prisoners as well, she thinks, maybe someone else recognised the name but why is it important? She knows about the signs but Thomas is dead.

"Hey!" One of the partygoers shouts but a thump signals that they've been hit.

What now?

Shouts and screams as other partygoers woke and were knocked down, pushed into corners and threatened.

Ada tried to pull herself towards the door, something was off but she didn't know what and drawing attention to herself didn't seem like an idea.

Blondie and friends stomped up the stairs and his minions were quickly knocked down but Blondie ran out, she could just see the doorway - definitely him.

The stairs were just in her reach, she started to pull herself up, knowing she'd have to make a speedy dash for the street.

"Hey, Minho. We've got a Runner," someone sneered.

Ada was yanked up by the scruff of her neck but was swiftly dropped with a yelp when she was recognised.

"Ada? What are you-" but the girl was up, on her feet.

She throws herself at the Glader, her hands on either side of his face.

Tears stream down her face as she feels his face, not believing her eyes.

"You were dead. I saw you. You were dead." She cries, stumbling back she hits her bad leg on a chair and falls.

He crouches down in front of her and unwraps her hastily bandaged leg, "that's nasty. Think the bullet may have been infected."

The words mean nothing to Ada, she just can't take her eyes off his face, "you were dead." She mutters.

"Ada, Ada, I'm here." Newt pulls her in, "I'm here." He grabs a hand a puts it on his chest, "see. Heartbeat."

It felt real, but so had his dead body. So had that note. So had that smell.

So had Minho's dead body.

The coppery stench of blood.

Real.

He makes her extend her leg and she glares at him, anger and disbelief clouding her face.

Minho notices her face and bends down next to her.

"Are you okay?" His face creased with concern.

"You're dead." She says.

He makes a big show of checking his pulse, "nope. Still alive." But he doesn't laugh, just turns and walks down the stair case.

Minutes later Thomas and the girl, Jorge's friend, appear at the top of the stairs with Minho.

"You?" Ada shouts, "you did this. You're with them. Where are my friends?"

Newt holds his hands out in an effort to placate her, "we're right here Ada."

"No. You're dead, you died. I saw you." Thomas and his new buddy look startled at Ada's reaction.

But Newt resorts to ignoring her so he glances to Minho, "we need to get her out of here. That guy will be back and Tommy seems to thinks he's packing." So Minho picks her up, and carries her out onto the street.

Jorge and a boy, who Ada didn't know, stood in the middle of the room pointing weapons at the party people but they move when Newt walks into the centre of the room and addresses the dancers, "you know the deal. Follow us and we kill you."

With that he turns and walks out the door.

Minho follows being careful not to knock Ada's leg on the door frame but instead managing to smack her hand against the door.

He feels her tense in his arms and realises what happened, he lowers her onto the steps outside and takes her injured hand, "what did they do to you?" he whispers.

"I did this," she answers, "when I found your body."

He closes his eyes, trying to ignore her comment and bends down and picks her up.

Everyone gathered in the alleyway and Minho lowers Ada to the floor, she stands up almost straight away.

"Ada, don't think it's smart for you to be walking on that." Newt walks over to where she stands, "you should let someone carry you."

"I'm fine. I don't need dead people carrying me anywhere." She scowls at the Gladers, most of whom have been listening in.

"We're not dead, Ada."

"I saw you, Minho. Your wrists were cut, there was blood everywhere. Newt was hanging from the ceiling and everybody else?" She addresses the Gladers, who have been hanging on to her every word, "was in pieces. Torn to shreds. There was arms and legs all over the place. Blood all over the walls. You'd even tallied it off." She slumps to the floor.

The Gladers listen to her, shock and disgust on their faces.

Jorge's friend steps forward, "is that what you meant? When you said your friends were dead? You meant these guys?"

Ada nods, "there was a note with your bodies," she pulled the crumpled paper from her shoe, unfortunately pyjamas don't have pockets.

Newt takes it from her and reads it aloud, "I didn't write this Ada, this isn't even my writing. After they'd taken you we went to bed and in the morning Teresa was gone as well, we thought you were with her. We got out of the room Ada, we weren't trapped."

"Twenty years." She mutters, her head in her hands.

"What?"

"Twenty years. You're too young. Too young. Twenty years." She starts screaming, the boys glance at each other nervously.

Newt and Minho grab her by an arm each and pull her to her feet, they drag her along with them but she doesn't struggle, she just mutters about twenty years.

They make it about five feet before a yell echoes down the alley, everyone turns around and Blondie pulls the trigger into Thomas before anyone can object, the Greenie goes down and seconds later Blondie is on the floor too, Minho has leapt onto the man and is beating the living hell out of him.

Newt shouts when Ada falls and Teresa screams because Thomas is bleeding.

It's Jorge who pulls Minho off the shooter and helps Teresa to heave Thomas down the street, someone takes hold of Ada from the other side and together they stumble into the Scorch.


	16. Berg

The Gladers lie Ada and Thomas next to each other, Jorge bent down next to Thomas and did something which must have hurt because Thomas screamed until he blacked out.

When Jorge came to check on her leg, Ada squirmed. Whatever he'd done to Thomas it hadn't sounded fun and she did not want it to happen to her.

"Ada, isn't it?" Jorge spoke calmly, "I just need to check your leg but I need you to stay still for me, can you do that?" He spoke like she was an idiot but she gave a small nod - after all, he wasn't dead.

He touches her leg tenderly and turns it this way and that after a short while he lets go and says, "the bullet went straight through. We just need to wait and see if it's infected." He pats her thigh and walks over to where the dead people wait. They start to talk but someone points at the sky so they all look up.

A space ship lands on Ada and she watches, a numb indifference overwhelming her, as it picks up her and her neighbour and takes them away.

She wakes.

A fuzz lingers over her like a cloud.

She sleeps.

She wakes and the pain in her leg is gone.

She lifts her head slightly and her leg is bandaged. And so is her hand.

Both feel healthy again.

Something fills her veins and she sleeps again.

"Ada!" British voice rung out.

"Well I'll be shucked." Minho.

She opens her eyes and a bright light fills her vision, she tries to hold up a hand to block it out but her arms are tied down.

"Let her up." Newt.

Someone cuts her ties and she sits up, rubbing her head.

"Where the shuck have you been?" Minho asks, almost dragging Ada to her feet.

"Disneyland." She retorts grumpily. Glaring at the Gladers, refusing to properly acknowledge that they are real.

"Ada... You don't still think that, do you?" Newt asks, his voice almost heart broken.

"Do I still think you're dead? I still know you're dead." She pushes her way through the boys, "only ones I didn't see dead are these pair, and I don't know if I can trust them."

She jabs her fingers at Jorge and the girl, who holds out a hand, "I'm Brenda by the way. Never did introduce myself."

Ada stares her down, "I don't know why this is happening but I'm not sticking with you." She begins to limp off.

"Hey!" Brenda yells, "why can't you trust me? I fed you and protected you whilst you slept. I had to kill one of my own to keep you alive."

Ada turns back, "yeah. Why? Why would you do that for some stranger? Maybe it's because you work for that Wonderful or-" she waves her hand about, trying to remember.

"Wicked?" Newt offers, she casts a glare his way.

"Maybe it's because you work for Wicked?" And with that, Ada leaves.

They watch her, limp off into the sand before Thomas shakes his head and sets off after her.

"Tommy, don't bother. No good will come of it."

But Newt sighs because the boy just waves a hand behind him and shouts, "I have a plan."

He runs after the girl, who tries to limp quickly but in the sand has real trouble.

He catches up to her and takes her hand in his, "we're not dead. I promise you. We are real. See, feel my hand. Real, right?"

"I felt Newt's body, when I took the note. That felt real. Felt human."

"Why would we lie? Why? All those shanks at Wicked have done is lie and manipulate. So far we've told you nothing but the truth, right? We've protected you," he pleads.

Ada rolls her eyes and sits on the sand dune, "I know. I know it seems crazy but I saw you, saw your dead bodies. The bits of you strewn over the room, the blood on the window. Even my reflection."

Thomas flops down next to her, "what do you mean? Reflection?"

"They told me I'd been out for twenty years. Showed me a mirror, I looked old and- exactly how you'd imagine someone who'd been asleep for twenty years would." They watch the Gladers mill about, waiting for them.

"If I could show you your reflection, would you come with us?" Thomas leapt up.

"I would come with you, don't expect me to forget what I saw." She lets him pull her towards the camp, "get me a mirror." He yells and Minho howls with laughter.

But somebody hands Thomas a mirror and he holds it to her face.

She looks at her face and puts a hand up to it.

"What..."

"You see, they put those images in your head, same with the bodies I guess. We saw the staff all hanging when we woke up, guess they were screwing with us, part of their Variable klunk."

"I'm- I'm not-" Ada puts a hand to her head. This was all too much, "I lost twenty years of my life, every person I ever knew and- and my best friends. My only friends. Why? Why would they?"

Newt shakes his head, "all we know is they're trying cure some bloody disease that they gave us for fun."

"Disease?"

"The Flare. Makes you jacked." Newt smiles stiffly, "makes you crazy. They have these klunk Variables they keep putting us through. Putting you in the Maze, that was one, so were Thomas and Teresa. The Griever attacks. Taking you, making you see those things was one too I bet."

"Right, well. Anyone who does that kind of shit deserves to be mauled by Grievers."

Aris clears his throat and steps forward, "That's a little-"

"The shuck are you?" Ada turns on Aris, "I may not have known everyone's names but I'm sure I would recognise your ugly mug."

"Shuck? You using our words now Greenie?" Minho chuckles, "this slinthead's Aris. He appeared in your and Teresa's room. Says he's from another maze."

"There are other Maze's?" Ada's voice is full of shock and horror, "how many?"

"One," Newt says, "that we know of."

"When I see these people I'm going to tear them limb from limb." Newt sees an awful look cross Ada's face, he knew she would. He knew she'd stop at nothing. If it meant she'd get to hurt even one of Wicked.

"After that lovely speech," Jorge smiled dryly, "we'd best be off. This miracle cure won't wait."

"Cure?"

"Okay. Somebody catch Ada up, while we walk. We could be here all day." Newt shouts to the group before marching off.

"What's going on? Do I even want to know?" Ada asks Minho, who walks with her. He helps her stumble over sand dunes.

"After you vanished everything went to shit." He glances at her, making sure he used her word right, she nods so he carries on, "this Rat Man appeared and-"

"Rat Man? You mean Janson?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"He's the one who told me you were dead."

Minho's fists ball but he carries on, "the Rat told us we had to go through a doorway and from there we had to get to some Complex 100 miles away. He gave us two weeks, said if we made it we'd get our cure."

"To the Flare?"

"Yes."

"And how long has it been?"

"A week maybe? We haven't been keeping track." He shakes his head and sand flies from it.

"Thomas came up with me in that spaceship, why wasn't he tied down with me?"

"He got dropped off a few hours before you, explained to us where he'd been. We freaked when you weren't with him, thought you'd died."

"Freaked huh?" She smirks and Minho knows she's okay, a little light has come back in her.

"Yeah. Running, screaming, the works." He laughs and it feels good, hasn't had a proper laugh since the day the Doors forgot to close.

She nudges him and he stumbles slightly and they end up shoving each other until Ada falls and clutches her leg.

"Ouch. Shit. That hurt." She creases her forehead at him and his heart drops, he's hurt her.

"Here, let me-" he holds out a hand to pull her up and she puts all her body weight behind pulling him down.

He stumbles onto the sand next to her and they laugh.

Ada rolls over and nudges him and they lie in the sand together.

"Would you two stop behaving like shucking puppies. We have a deadline and you two lying in the sand is going to get us nowhere." Newt has shoved his way back through the group to where the pair lie, "Minho, you of all people know how serious this is and Ada, I know you think we're dead but getting us killed won't help that." Newt storms back to the front of the group and both of them stand up, awkwardly carrying on walking whilst the Gladers glare.

Minho looks at Ada, ready to apologise for the way Newt shouted, explain it away with stress or anxiety but when he looks she's moved away. Her face has turned red and her eyes are dark.

 _That was mortifying, I can't believe I was stupid enough to play games. You heard Newt, life and death and you want to roll around in the sand with some dead guy? Right!_ Ada scolds herself internally, clenching her bad fist - pain shooting up her arm. She knows Minho, and everybody else, would notice her moving away from him but she was horrified at everyone's accusing glares, now wasn't the time for joking about and she let a hot guy with a cute smile deter her.

She just needed to stay alive, that was her one goal.

 **A/N what do you think? I never know cause one chapter gets like five reviews and the next is none. Is it okay?**


	17. Her

At the back of the group Ada is the last to discover why the group has stopped but the first to elbow her way to the front. Newt addresses them, "it's starting to get sunny. We need to get some sleep if we're gonna walk through the night. We're nearly at the mountains and we'll get there by midnight tomorrow. Right now, set up the shelter and Frypan can divy up some food."

People get to work around her but whenever Ada tries to help she is shoved out on account of her 'bum leg' and broken hand. She offers Frypan help but he shakes his head, the builders refuse and same with the guards.

Eventually she throws herself down on the sand and lies back, may as well get some sleep if she can't be of use.

"You sulking cause I shouted?" Newt.

She opens her eyes allowing a crack of light to blind her temporarily, "no. I'm sulking cause no one'll let me help. Don't care about dead people." Ada curses herself internally, why? Why did she have to say that? It wasn't his fault.

"So you're sulking cause I told everyone to make you rest?" He gives a half smile as he plonks himself down in the sand next to her.

"You told everyone to make me rest? What about Tommy boy? He got shot too." She sits up and leans her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah but Tommy isn't you. He rests when he needs it, I knew to get you to lie down I'd have to make you." He takes a swig of water.

"I won't rest till those Wicked people get what's coming at them."

"Exactly." He stands up, "I think Frypan's finished dinner."

"Mm... What'll it be? Crackers and apples?" A spark in Ada's eyes highlights the sarcasm in her voice.

"Don't be so cheeky or you'll get nought." Frypan says, piling her plate like he used to.

"We good Fry?" She holds out a hand and he takes it.

"Yeah, A. Sorry I doubted you." She pulls him in, pats his back in what she calls a 'man hug' and they're good again.

She trots off, plate of something in her hand and sits with her old friends. Tommy, Minho and Newt, who was just behind her - plate of food in hand. Brenda and Jorge come over to join them and Ada notices someone missing, "where's Teresa?" It's only once the phrase has left her mouth that she realises her mistake, she remembered someone telling her where she'd gone. Thomas' face says it all, they took her, "sorry." She mumbles and hides her face behind her hair.

A short while later Minho says, "you survived the Scorch by yourself till we found you. How?"

And she recounts her story for them, skipping the bodies. They knew and they didn't want to hear more.

"I climbed out the window back at the Wicked complex, tied together the bedsheets and when I reached the bottom I took the last one. The sun seemed pretty bad so I thought I'd need shelter. I ran and ran till I couldn't anymore. Managed to pull myself up in time for a lightning storm mind, someone was bombing me while I ran, must've thought they were pretty funny."

"That was the lightning, we figured it was to do with the screwy atmosphere we got left with."

Ada nods at Minho, "well, I made it the building where I found Jorge and Brenda." She glances at him, "still haven't forgiven you for kicking me by the way." He shrugs it off, "then Bren fed me up and I left. That's when I bumped into those party people, the ones who shot me. I knocked my chair over and it smashed so I ran upstairs just in time for you guys to come in with your shiny armour."

"Sounds like fun. But what happened at the complex? What did they do to you?"

"They did squat. I smashed Rat Man with his mirror and used a fire extinguisher to get into your room, cept when I got in there you were dead. Minho and Newt were the only ones identifiable but there was enough body parts."

"Why us?" Minho asks Newt, "why would they think it'd hurt most to see us?"

Newt watches Ada, ignoring Minho's last comment.

It's Jorge who works it out in the end, "because you like them don't you? Back in your little Maze you got close to some of them and these are the ones left standing."

All three of them glare at Jorge but if he cares he doesn't show it.

"Fucking Variables." Ada mutters.

"Fucking Variables." Newt agrees.

Everybody is silent as they finish their meals and Ada finds herself a spot to curl up in but Newt and Minho somehow find their way next to her. She thinks they might try talking to her and considers moving but when she sits up they both sit up, weapons in hand. Their heads turning this way and that, daring anything to attack her.

A laugh escapes her before she can stop it, "are you trying to protect me?"

She can't see their faces clearly but the rush of blood to their faces could be seen from space. She curls back up and they do the same, weapons kept close.

Ada dreams of Chuck dying in her arms.

Ben's screams echo in the background.

Griever cries.

Wolf's yell before the battle at Griever hole.

The way Gally just lay there.

Newt's face watching Alby getting torn to shreds.

She lashes out in her sleep.

Screaming.

"Ada! Ada! Wake up! We're here. It's okay." She wakes up, her legs held down by Minho and Newt pins her arms down. The other Gladers stand over her, staring.

"I'm sorry- I just- my-"

"It's okay. Wicked scarred us all." Newt's grip on her arms loosens slightly and Minho straightens up, hiding his face from her.

"Minho?" She calls out after the boy and on instinct he turns towards her, "oh my god. Did I do that?" A huge bruise swells his eye, "Minho I'm sorry."

He turns away, "it's fine. I'm fine."

"No. I hurt you. I could have hurt other people too, I'll go sleep somewhere else." She marches away from the boys and curls up as far away from other people as she can. But she doesn't sleep, sleeping brings the nightmares and the nightmares make her hurt people.

After ten minutes she sits up, everybody is asleep.

It's probably three or four o'clock and she sits up. Everyone will be awake soon anyway, it's hardly like she's losing too much sleep.

She sits watching the horizon, enjoying the quiet.

The sun on her face.

Wind whips her hair.

And it's then that she sees them.

People.

There's a mountain range that they'd been heading for and Ada sees people. On the mountain.

She jumps up, ready to wake Newt or Minho but when she sees their faces, the dark rings round their eyes she hesitates.

No harm in going up the hill.

No harm in going to see what's up before she gets the boys up.

She sets off towards the mountain, the heat makes her leg hurt but she powers through.

She is a strong woman.

She doesn't need men to help her.

She doesn't need people carrying her.

Making her useless.

Making her nothing.

She smiles at the thought of one of her favourite musicals and sings as she walks, "Pulitzer and Hertz they think we're nothin'. Are we nothing? No!" She raises her fist in the air, Newsie style and is overcome by the sudden thought that her favourite musicals may never be on Broadway again, she doesn't know why but this breaks her heart. She nearly sits down right there and gives up but carries on because there are definitely people on that mountain.

They've become much clearer now, females. Definitely.

At the prospect of other women she runs, wincing at the pain in her leg but carrying on.

She scrambles up the mountain side, glancing back briefly to see someone being held to the floor - one of them had tried to run after her it seems.

It's only as she reaches the camp that she realises her mistake, she'd been baited.

Waiting are a group of ten girls, all pointing weapons at her.

She throws her hands up, "I come in peace."

A menacing echo of laughter shoots round the group, a blonde girl steps forward, "do ya? check her for weapons."

Ada feels herself being grabbed from behind, patted down.

"Nothing."

Ada breathes a sigh of relief she hadn't forgotten about a weapon but the blonde girl laughs, "fool."

"My group is down there. I just wanted to see who was up here."

"Well, it's us. Group B."

"Group B? What do you mean?"

"You don't know, huh?" Blondie 2 folds her arms, "Group B as in Maze number two. As in the female equivalent of your maze. Though I don't recall a second boy, so I don't know where you came from?"

"I ran through the maze, appeared in the Glade. I heard about the other Maze though, we've got Aris. Sure we could do a trade." Ada tempts.

"Oh no girly, we need you." And with that she is grabbed and dropped at the roots of an old tree. They tie her down and leave her there, ignoring her completely.

Ada allows herself some sleep, tied down she can't hurt anyone but when she is jolted awake by her own scream what she sees is worse than anything she could have dreamed.

Next to her, Minho lays - exactly the same look as before. Blood covering him but this time his chest moves.

"Minho. Minho! Wake up. Please." Ada cries, "please Minho. You have to help. You have to get up!"

His eyes open and his head turns and he glares at her.

"Minho..." Hate shoots from his eyes but he looks away, his eyes turning to in front of her.

Newt hangs from a tree. His body jerking and flailing but his eyes are on her.

Newt.

She closes her eyes but the images remain.

"NEWT!" She screams, fighting with her bindings.

She throws her head back into the tree.

Newt crackles but comes back.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

When she opens her eyes he's gone. And so is Minho.

She hunches over and sobs.

After a while she hears a voice break through the fuzz.

"Ada- I'm going to need you to come back. You need to help, I don't know what's happening but you've got to come back to me, okay? You've got to. Just follow my voice, follow my voice and we can get out of here and we'll get you back to Newt and Minho and figure out what's happening." A frantic voice brings her back slowly but eventually she opens her eyes and the fuzz dissipates.

"I'm back." She groans.

"Ada, okay. We need to get out of here. They want to kill us, they want us dead."

This snaps her back, "dead? They can't kill us! We're the other Maze!"

"Teresa's gone nuts, she's jacked in the head. Smacked me really hard and now she's going to kill us. I've persuaded her friends but they want to talk with Teresa herself first." Thomas is pressed against her now, whispering right into her ear.

"Teresa's gone nuts?" She smiles, "was about time one of us did. At the end of this we'll all be nuts."

"Ada, I need you to focus."

"Sorry. I just, my head."

"Yeah, I saw that. What happened? You started screaming about Minho and Newt and then you smacked your head a few times."

"They showed me them, their dead bodies. But they weren't dead, they were looking at me like it's all me. Like its my fault. They hated me."

"Ada... That's false, you know that. It's not real. Wicked wants to screw with you."

"I know but-" she doesn't get another word out because Teresa storms into the camp, the other girls descend on her and she shouts a lot before storming right off again.

One of the girls comes over and slices the ropes, "you two done napping?"

"Not quite, let us a bit longer?" Thomas smiles before allowing the girl to help him up.

Ada just stares.

"What's her problem?" Blondie 2 snaps.

"Leave her be, she's been put through ten times more shit than any other Glader." If Thomas tie trying to whisper he fails miserably, so Ada pushes herself up and shakes off the black spots before stumbling her way through the girl group.

"Thanks for the intro Tommy boy." She sneers, "I'm Ada and I haven't been through any more klunk than the rest of the boys."

"Klunk?" Blondie 2 grins.

"Yeah, like shit but for the Gladers."

"Shit? What's that?"

"I had memories of hundreds of years ago, it's a slang term from back then. Can we please work on getting back to the others? I need to make sure-" she stops herself before finishing her sentence.

"Make sure what?"

"Sonya," another girls warns.

"No, I want to know. Make. Sure. What?" Sonya gives Ada a jab with her club for each word.

"I want to make sure my friends aren't dead." She looks away, "Wicked keep screwing with my head and they want me to think my friends are dead for their sodding Variables, I wanna know they aren't. Good that?"

Sonya's friend looks unimpressed, "we'll get you back to your friends. But quit with the attitude."

Ada flicks her eyebrow but obliges, she senses getting on the wrong side of this army of women would serve no purpose.

As they stumble down the mountain Ada and Thomas stay back, with her leg and her head she can't move at a decent pace and Thomas seems to be the only one who cares.

He guides her down, his voice calm until a silhouette appears behind both Ada and Thomas.

Knives push into both of their backs.

"Walk. To that rock up there." Teresa?

They both do as they're told, Ada stumbling around and her captor struggling to keep a knife in place.

"You've met Aris, right?" Teresa asks.

"How do you even know Aris?" Thomas asks, the shock in his voice fills Ada with dread, she has an idea where this is going and it will kill Thomas.

They are directed the rest of they way and they enter a cave, with a weird green door.

Teresa and Ada have some kind of talk which ends in them kissing, Ada reaches out and give Tommy's hand a squeeze.

Once their make out session has finished Thomas tries talking to Teresa, reasoning with her but she hits him over the head and he shuts up.

Ada tries to make sense of what she sees - Teresa, with a spear, that she was pointing at Ada; Aris, also with a weapon and Thomas, slumped on the floor.

Ada stumbles to her feet but all she can manage to do is throw up. Aris and Teresa laugh and Ada slumps back down.

"Why?" She asks weakly.

"Because we hate you. We need you to die." Teresa says, a horrible sneer plastered on her face.

"You're a bitch. You know that? Tom, he would have stopped the world if it made you happy and you're throwing everything back in his face. I have girls like you, in my memories and they always always get the shit they deserve." Teresa spits, rubbing her hand over the back of her head, congealed blood cakes a swollen lump.

"Well, right now, having him dead would make him happy," the girl waves her hand at the collapsed boy, "and it looks as though he's obliging."

"You're a total fucking bitch. A stone cold bitch." Ada makes sure to eject every bit of anger and disgust that has been building up into her voice.

Aris crouches down in front of her, he reaches out and lifts her chin.

"You get your hands off me or I'll-"

"You'll what? Hit your head on a wall?" The smarmy boy leans in, his face mere inches from hers.

She spits at him and he just laughs. Her eyes flick to Teresa, "you saw what I did to Gally, want me to work over your boyfriend here too?"

Thomas grunts and turns himself over, trying to stand.

Teresa laughs, "Lets just stick them in the room." With that she grabs both Ada and Thomas and drags them towards the green room. Aris stands to the side, watching as they go.

At the last moment, Thomas turns to Aris and whispers something, the boy goes green and Thomas strikes out and Ada dives on the boy, flattening him to the floor. She stays on top of him, making sure Thomas and Teresa got a fair fight.

But the look on Thomas' face tells her he won't do anything. Not against his Teresa.

Before Ada knows what happening Aris has shoved her off him and tackles Thomas, shoving him into the green room.

The pair spin towards Ada and she shuffles back but the other two have weapons and they grab her, forcing her into the chamber too.

She slumps on top of Thomas and waits.

A hissing sound starts and a strange smell fills the air.

Her chest begins to hurt and she blacks out.

A dream, an incredibly clear dream begins as if someone pressed play on a movie.

 _Teresa, Aris, Thomas, Rachel (where did that name come from?) and Ada._

 _All of them._

 _In a room, staring at each other._

 _Ada feels Aris staring at her, a look of adoration in his eyes. She's been leading him on, letting him believe she liked him._

 _The girlfriend of Wicked's pet can't be bad, right?_

 _"Is this a good idea?" Ada asks in a hushed voice. They are used to their private conversations being, not too private._

 _"Ada," Thomas says, "we know you have doubts but this is for the sake of the world. For the sake of our parents."_

 _Ada nods but doubts still cloud her face._

 _The others share a worried glance._

 _"We must enter the Swipe." Aris says, he holds out a hand, "I'll see you in the Scorch."_

 _Ada hides her disgust for these, these... Zombies. That's what they are, they believe anything and everything Wicked tells them and she despises that._

 _As she turns to leave Aris catches her sleeve and stares into her eyes, "remember, Wicked is good."_

 _She yanks her sleeve away and the dream begins to fade._

"Ungh," she sits up, rubbing her head.

A strange whispery noise punctures the darkness and Ada pushes herself off Thomas, shoving him into a corner so she has room to sit.

She feels almost okay, her head has stopped pounding and the hunger and exhaustion she'd been feeling since she left the Maze were almost completely gone.

"Thomas." She nudges the boy and he stirs, "Thomas please."

He stirs for a moment before sitting up.

"How do you feel?" She asks, he'd been the brunt of the beatings and he'd almost certainly be feeling it.

He thinks for a moment, "fantastic. It's weird, none of me hurts."

"I have to say, I feel a lot better too." She pauses, "wait a minute, are we dead?"

He laughs through the darkness, it sounds weird to her, given the situation, "I don't think so, I imagine death would be different."

She holds a hand out, feeling for a wall. When she doesn't feel anything she stands up and walks at one, when she thumps against a solid object she laughs, "not ghosts at least."

She feels him moving next to her and then he starts pounding on the wall, "hey! Anybody out there?" He pounds and bangs against the wall for a minute or two, Ada watching, where she assumes he is, from the floor.

Eventually the wall becomes a door and a crack of light opens up.

Someone stands on the other side of the door but Ada can't see who.

"I'm so sorry." Teresa.

She dives at Tom, enveloping him in a hug.

"Tom don't. Remember what she did." Ada warns, she glares at the other girl, who's face is streaked with tears.

But he's already pushing her away.

"Tom please, I did what I had to. If I hadn't done that they said they'd kill you."

Thomas stares at the girl, "did you and Aris talk whilst we were in the Maze?" He growls.

She sniffs and dabs at her eyes, "yes."

Tom barges past the girl and out of the cave.

Teresa looks at Ada, "thanks for the help."

"I didn't do that. You did." Ada walks after Thomas, the two traitors follow them.

After a short walk, Aris leans forward and grabs Ada's arm, pulling her back. "Ada, we should let them talk."

Ada glances at Thomas who nods and she walks off with Aris.

Once they're a short distance away Ada sits at the base of a tree. Eyeing Aris with all the hatred she could.

"You used to love me, you know." He says, "you used to tell me I was a hero."

"I said what I had to." She responds.

The hurt in his face is clear, but he steps towards her and crouches next to her, the same way he had in the cave. He reaches a hand out, tilting her chin to his and he leans in.

Their lips collide and he pushes into her, making it impossible to move.

She opens her eyes, willing Thomas to look over - save her from this strange boy, he is with Teresa, who pulls away from their own kiss.

Thomas glances to where Ada sits, mauled by this boy and he sprints over.

"Get off her," he shouts before yanking on Aris' shirt making the boy stumble back. Ada scrambles to her feet and wipes her mouth.

Aris glares at Ada, who stares back until Aris shrugs and storms off. The others follow him down the hill, Ada making sure to keep herself well away from that creep.

From the top of the mountain they can see the two groups, one female, one male making their way across the sand. But there's nothing for miles and surely everyone has realised that by now, but still they power on.

Once they were clear of the base of the mountain they lost sight of the Gladers but they ran anyway. Ada was sick of these people, everything that had happened was confusing and really, even Thomas scared her now.

All four of them ran, pounding their legs against the sand, which it turned out was not too solid. It was complete silence, no use wasting breath on conversation but something told Ada that they'd be silent even if they were sitting.

Everyone of them had their own things to worry about but all Ada could think of was what Jorge had said, 'because you like them don't you? Back in your little Maze you got close to some of them and these are the ones left standing.'

It was her.

They hurt people to get to her.


	18. Safe Haven

_They hurt people to get to me._

The thought bangs around in her head, even once the other groups are in there sights.

From where she stands she can feel Newt's desperation to run over but she doesn't acknowledge him.

She just hangs her head.

 _They hurt people. Good people._

 _For me._

Chuck, it had become clear, was dead because of them. Gally had been controlled into throwing that knife.

Chuck was dead because they wanted her dead.

As they reach the group Teresa has several weapons pointed at her, she holds up her hands in surrender, "I did what I had to but I am sorry if anyone's upset by it."

"Upset? I'd say we were shucking murderous." Minho yells but Newt holds a hand out and he silences.

"Ada? You alright?" Newt asks.

"Yeah, you okay?" Minho adds, she'd roll her eyes if she'd been concentrating enough to hear them.

Aris nudges her in the back and she spins towards him.

"Fuck off," she marches over to the centre of the two groups but he follows her.

"I won't go away."

"Fuck off doesn't _mean_ go away. Fuck off _means_ fuck off," she screams at him in a Scottish accent.

His mouth opens and closes a little but he does just that, he fucks off.

"What was that-"

"Don't fucking try me." Ada says, holding a hand up to whoever was speaking. "What's this? It's just a sign? Not anything. Safe Haven my ass."

"It's still an hour till we're meant to be here, maybe a Berg will appear?" Thomas suggests.

"Maybe. Let's bloody hope." Newt says, "for now everyone get some rest. Me and some others will stay awake and we'll wake you in fifty minutes."

Everyone starts settling down. Soon it's Sonya, her friend, Minho, Newt, Thomas, Teresa, Aris, Brenda, Jorge and Ada still awake.

There's around thirty people around.

"Thomas, Ada. Get some rest." Newt commands. Ada shakes her head as Thomas heads off to find somewhere amongst the bodies. Brenda whispers something to Jorge and they both head off to find somewhere to settle.

"Ada, you should sleep." Minho's face is full of concern, something she hasn't seen from him since they met.

"I've done enough sleeping." She responds, "now I'd like a weapon. Wicked took my machete and you cleaned me of anything else. But I don't know what's going to happen and I'd like some security."

Silence.

"Here. Have one of mine." Sonya's friend steps forward, machete in hand.

"Nice, thanks." She smiles, admiring the weapon, "don't think I ever got your name?"

"Harriet. Leader of Group B." She gives Ada a nod.

"Well, now the introductions are through can we get round to addressing why Teresa tried to kill Tommy?" Newt speaks, obviously irritated.

"Yeah, what did that little shank do up there anyway." Minho adds.

"Stuck us in some room. Aris helped." Ada smiles at the guilty pair, "they had a lovely little kiss too."

Newt shakes his head, "Tommy isn't gonna forgive you for that any time soon."

Teresa's face is blank, "I did what I had to, I'm done apologising." She stomps off to a space in the sleeping kids.

Aris stands looking sheepish under the glares of Minho and Newt.

"I just did-"

"What you had to. We get it." Minho says but doesn't lower his glare.

Ada snorts, "right. What you _had_ to."

Immediately she realises it's a mistake because Minho's face drops, "what did you do?"

"I- uh- I-"

"What. Did. You. Do?"

"Minho, slim it." Ada tries to grab his arm, pull him back but he's much bigger than her, he shakes her off and she looks to Sonya and Harriet for help.

But they both step back, "this is a matter for your Glade."

Ada looks to Newt who stands there, an awful look on his face finally she lunges at Minho's back, wraps her limbs round him and throws her body weight back, he tumbles over and Ada lets out an oof as they land, she shuffles from under him.

He leaps back to his feet but Ada jumps in between him and Aris.

"Get out of my way." He snarls.

"No. Listen to me, I hate him to but attacking him won't do any good. He's a victim of Wicked too. An enemy of my enemy is my friend. Right?"

"What do he do?"

"It doesn't-"

"What did he do?"

"It's not-"

"WHAT DID HE DO?"

Ada nearly screams, she has never heard him yell before. It shocks her so much all she can do is whisper, "he kissed me."

Minho looks like he's been slapped, "he did what?"

"He- he kissed me."

Minho just stands still but it isn't till she hears Aris yelp that she's notices Newt has thrown himself at the boy and is now hitting him.

"Now will you help?" Ada shouts to Sonya and Harriet who grin before dragging Newt off a now bloody Aris.

"Newt, you idiot. I do not need people to protect me, I'm a big girl I can fend for myself. I proved that when I stabbed Gally right?" He looks away, "right?"

"Right."

"Good that. Now stop being such a bloody baby and fuck off to sleep." She scolds him and he's so startled he does as he's told. She turns to Minho, "you too. I'll keep watch."

He bites his lip but skulks off to find somewhere to sleep.

She turns to Sonya and Harriet but before she can open her mouth Harriet says, "stick it. You're not sending us to bed, okay?"

"Yes. I wasn't going to. I just want some space to deal with this-"

Before she can finish her sentence the floor groans into life, strange pods spin up from the floor.

"Crap! All this pissing about, no one kept track of time." Ada dances round the Gladers, "wake up! Wake up! It's happening! It's time."

Slowly grouchy Gladers push themselves up, when they realise what's happening they draw their weapons.

"I think they're Griever pods." Newt has pushed himself to Ada's side.

"No. Doesn't make sense. Grievers are all sticky and pointy, in the sand? They'd be useless. This is gonna be something far worse."

"Thanks for the pep talk," Minho.

"Right. I've had enough. You two are ridiculous. I don't need protection, okay? I'm a grown woman, I can fend for myself. Now fuck off." She snaps but they don't move, she rolls her eyes and storms off, finding herself another vantage point.

By the time she's reached the other side of the huddle the Griever things have clambered their way out, they slump onto the sand.

"The hell is that?" She watches as the creatures stumble to their feet, they would be comical if it wasn't for the blades shooting from their joints. The weird glowing orbs on each joint pulsing.

"Right! Everybody listen up! Looks like there's one for each of us so grab a weapon, pick one, kill it." Minho gives another inspiring speech.

Everyone prepares themselves for the fight, bracing themselves but Minho yells, "now! Charge them!"

And they do.

Ada runs, machete held by her side.

The creature stands, waiting for her.

She lunges and the creature jabs at her, she dodges out the way and stabs it's back.

Nothing.

No reaction.

No pain at all.

She circles the creature, watching it turn.

Her eyes narrow and she jabs again, this time hitting a glowing orb. The creature squeals through its non mouth and lashes out.

She wasn't expecting a retaliation so soon and a deep gash appears on her right arm, her fighting arm.

Just lifting it hurts.

She tosses the machete to the floor, she'd be more of a hinderance to herself trying to use her hands now so she backs up and runs, pushing herself off the floor and aiming her feet at several of the orbs in its chest.

A few pops and she has the creature knocked over, she plants her feet on the things arms and starts hitting the bulbs until everyone of the suckers is out.

She steps off her creature with a satisfied sigh.

"Lightning!" She glances to the sky, indeed, another storm is headed for them.

She runs for the monsters, the more she destroys the quicker everyone is out of the storm - she hopes.

She rugby tackles one that is just about to put a knife in a Group B and together they destroy the bulbs, the girl thanks her and together they work their way through the other creatures.

Ada realises people are climbing into the pods the monsters came up in and tries to make the girl go but she shakes her head, points to the other monsters.

There's about fifteen of them left when a bolt of lightning throws Ada off her feet, "No!"

Her friend from Group B lies on the floor. Half her body does at least.

"NO!" She screams. She kneels by the body until a pair of arms wrap around her waist and pull her away.

She struggles for a moment before giving in, whoever has her is strong and not about to let go. She is thrown onto some kind of platform and lies there. Numb.

 _She was just a kid._

 _She didn't deserve that._

 _She knew she could've gotten into a pod._

 _She knew she could've saved herself._

 _But she didn't._

 _And they killed her for it._

Someone sits with her, stroking her hair, watching the havoc going on around them until she sits up. Still shaking.

"What was her name?"

"Arc." Harriet says.

"Arc. Like Joan of Arc. It fits. She was a fucking soldier." Ada sniffs, "thank you Harriet. For getting me out of there, I'd still be screaming if it weren't for you."

"Oh, stick it. It was nothing." She smiles sadly.

Suddenly Ada remembers her arm, "shit," she tears a piece of cloth from her top and ties it tightly round her arm. "Should stop the bleeding at least."

"Who are these two?" A gruff male voice draws everyone's attention.

"They helped us get here, we said they could have the cure if they helped us." Thomas is standing defensively in front of Jorge and Brenda.

The man points a gun at Thomas' chest, "did we say you could bring friends?"

"No, but-"

"Choose."

"What?" The situation was losing control quickly.

"Choose. One dies, one lives. Choose."

Thomas looks between the two, his face horrified but eventually he says, "her. Kill her."

Brenda looks terrified but allows the man to drag her across the floor towards the edge, as the man passes Ada she leaps to her feet and dives at the man.

Brenda scuttles away quickly and Thomas grabs the man's gun. Ada pins the guy down, "nobody else dies. Got that? No more games. No more fucking Variables. No more death. Good that?"

The man smiles, "I'm David. It's over, okay? No more death."

Ada pushes her face into his, "I've heard that once before and you know what? The next day your friends tried to convince me my friends were dead. I want fucking evidence. A guarantee or I'll throw you off this thing myself."

"I don't know if I can give you a guarantee but I can say that you can keep my gun. We'll give you more if you like? So that if we do become too much you can fight out." Ada gives the man one last glare before getting off him. "I can say that once you know why we did this, you'll understand, even be grateful to us."

"That's the biggest load of klunk I ever heard." Minho snorts and Ada feels a smile on her face, glad he hadn't lost his fight.

"Soon we'll have you at the Safe Haven, somewhere you can be free. You'll be safe and we'll do no more to you. Ask no more of you."

Ada glances at her friends, Thomas' expression reflects her own as he growls. "No more games."

"First sign of trouble," Minho adds, "and we fight. If we die? So be it."

A disgusting sneer distorts the man's face, "you know, that's just what we predicted you'd say at this point."

Ada runs at him but Newt has thrown an arm up and she runs straight into him.

"Right this way." And they follow the man through the complex.

Newt holds Ada's arm with a tight hand, he leans in to her, "we'll get him later."


	19. The Swipe

"Eat up kids." Ada wants to run at David and punch his smarmy grin off his stupid face.

He's up to something.

Wicked isn't through.

There's no way.

The game is afoot.

The kids eat.

Everyone except Ada who glares down David.

"Ada. Eat." Newt sticks a plate of food in front of her face.

"No. I don't trust it."

"Ada, you've hardly eaten in the past few days and from what Thomas has told me, you threw most of it up," Minho stuffs his own face with food.

"I don't trust these people. They've done this before and last time I ended up being left on my own. Last time they told me you were dead. I don't trust it."

"That doesn't mean you should starve yourself."

"I'm not. I just want to know what's happening first." She stands up and walks at David, "where are those guns you promised? One each. Spare ammo."

"Not right now kid, sit down with your friends. Be a good girl."

She turns to walk away and spins back round, using her momentum to smack him in the face. She grins as he hits the floor, blood pouring from his face, a tooth lying on the floor.

She even smiles as the guards tackle her and drag her away.

They lock her in a white room.

After a few meals she starts throwing herself at the walls, "let me go!"

At one point she shoves her desk and bed against the door. It wedges her in quite nicely.

That is until they open a panel in the wall and come in, restraining Ada and removing the desk and the bed, leaving her the oddly squishy floor to curl up on.

Ten meals later she starts to train, she jogs on the spot from one meal to the next, makes a smear on the wall with the food then practises punching the same spot, then after the next meal, kicking it.

Then she sleeps again.

Then the cycle repeats.

A few more cycles and she's starting to regret attacking the man.

A few more and she wishes she'd gotten close enough to kill him.

A few more and Rat Man strolls into his room, as if nothing happened, as if she hadn't been locked in a room for weeks.

She beams from where she stands, fists just hitting just short of the wall, where something that he assumed was potatoes smeared the walls, "Morning Rat Man."

"Sit." He commands.

"No." She continues to hit the wall.

"Miss Lovelace." He warns.

"Mr Rat Man." She mocks his warning tone.

"It's Janson. AD Janson and you know that. Miss Lovelace I'd like to talk about letting you out."

She almost stops, almost.

"Don't you want to see your friends? Have a shower? Fresh clothes?"

"No. What I want is to go back to before. Before all this shit. Before you screwed with me. I want to go to my brother and my friends. I want to see my dogs and listen to some dumb musical numbers." She speaks as she punches, her fists coming dangerously close to the wall.

"Miss Lovelace, you were never with those people. You asked for those memories so you didn't stumble about like an idiot, we thought it would make for interesting Variables so we agreed."

"I would never have asked for that. And what about these?" She pulls up her sleeve, showing a matted tangle of scars. "They aren't fake. You can't fake pain like this, I remember doing these. How each one hurt, the day I did them. Or the depression I've had since? Because I know that wasn't fake."

"You did those to yourself, they were the one thing we knew couldn't fake, you were given a knife and told to hurt yourself. We had you do it several times. We added the memories around them. As for the depression? We injected chemicals into your brain, to make you depressed. It was interesting actually, what the chemicals did to you."

She shakes her head and laughs, "you mean to say, you made me hurt myself. You made a seventeen year old hurt herself? You're fucking sick." She spits.

"It's all for the greater good." He says.

"There was a man like you once, thought that bombing Japan was a good way to stop a war. He killed thousands of people, destroyed many more lives. There were still repercussions happening in my day."

"But, he stopped suffering in his own country."

"In the middle of a World War there is no time to think of your own country." She slams her fist into the wall, "shit."

"I'd request that you'd don't use that language with us young lady."

"Ha! What are you? My dad!" She laughs.

"Technically."

She spins and stares at him, walking menacingly towards him, "what did you say?"

"I'm your father, biologically. When I found out you were immune," he pauses, "I did what I had to."

"That's what you all say isn't it. For fucks sake. You're all the same. You and Aris and Teresa. All your Wicked friends. Is that what you put on the signs?" She scoffs.

"Continue talking like this Miss Lovelace and we won't let you out of this room."

She pauses from wrapping her hand, "let me out? That's why you're here?"

"Yes. We want to take you back to your friends."

"My friends? Are they... okay?"

"Perfectly fine." Rat Man gives a small tight smile.

"Take me to them."

"Certainly." He holds out a hand and the door swings open.

She is taken to a shower cubicle with a little shelf outside, with clothes and toiletries. "I believe this is all you need. I'll be back in half an hour."

He turns and leaves Ada alone.

The water feels good on her skin and she lets it run over her for a minute before starting to wash.

She climbs out twenty minutes later and dresses quickly. When Rat Man comes in she has a towel wrapped round her head.

"Ready?"

She grunts in response and pulls off the towel.

"Then let's go."

The second she enters the room Newt and Minho are on her, "why did you do that? They could have killed you? They said you had the Flare! That it had affected you badly."

"I'm fine. And immune apparently." She pulls her friends in for a hug, "I've missed you two."

They pull away and she beams.

"The old team, back together!" Minho laughs but there's a harshness in his voice that wasn't there before.

"It's good to see you Ada." Newt

The other Gladers sit around, chatting happily. No one else has acknowledged her though.

"It's good to be back." She grins.

David enters with Rat Man and Thomas at his side. David has a fading bruise on his face and Ada suppresses a smile - at least she'd left him a mark.

"Well I've been shucked and gone to heaven." Minho envelopes his friend and several others call out.

"Why didn't I get a welcome like that?" Ada mocks offence.

"Well I've been shucked and gone to heaven. Woo! Look it's Ada." Newt grins.

"Funny."

Shockingly Thomas' second port of call after Minho was Teresa. Ada nearly laughs, she'd tried to kill him but now they were best friends again?

Right.

Aris sits in a corner, gloomily watching everybody and Ada considers approaching him but thinks better of it. They had a strange history and she wasn't the best person to be his friend right now, he was obviously confused and scared and she didn't want to make it worse for him. She understood why he's done what he had, not the kissing but everything else, before the memory removal. They had all been children and Wicked had used them. That much she knew.

A chorus of hoots brings Ada back to the present, she glances up to see a blushing Thomas and Teresa.

"Aww, almost as sweet as that time she smacked a spear into your face." Minho sneers, a little venom in his voice.

Frypan is the next to throw his eggs in, "true love. I'd hate to see what these two are like after their first real fight."

David clears his throat and the room quietens. He speaks with a mocking, almost condescending tone, "before we start, would anybody like anything?"

Nobody says anything so Ada rocks back in her chair and sneers, "a spot of tea Jeeves."

Snickers echo round the room and Ada can see his jaw tense, her eyebrows flick up and down and he clenches his fist.

"David. Get Miss Lovelace a cup of tea please."

Ada has to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud. She holds a finger up, "one sugar please."

The man rubs his stubble, nods and walks out to return a moment later with a cup of tea.

"Thank you." She tilts her head and takes a long slurp.

"Now, I know you're all anxious to know what's going on here-"

"No kidding." Minho mutters.

"Yes, well, we will fill you in. We'd like to remove the Swipe from your minds."

A sudden burst of chatter runs round the room, Janson tries to get everyone to be quiet but eventually Harriet stands up and bangs her fist on a table, "QUIET!"

And everyone is.

Janson nods at her in thanks and she sits, giving a glare that dares anyone to talk again, "as I was saying, we'll remove the Swipe that was put in before you entered the Maze. I'd also like to repeat what you were all told in your one on ones, the Trials are through. We have put a lot of work in the past few years and now everything's finally coming to an end. We'll need to keep you around for some small observations but, in the most part, you've done your bit. Congratulations to everyone of you."

Ada feels Minho tense from where she sits, everybody sits in shocked silence. Eventually Minho opens his mouth. "You act like our friends didn't die. Like you haven't permanently scarred us. Like you haven't ruined our lives. Ada here? She's already having nightmares about the things you put her through. You made her watch us die, more than once I've heard. You've had her nearly raped, nearly killed and now? She's nearly shucking insane. And that's just one person, that you've been doing this to, for a few weeks. The rest of us? Years. Months. Weeks. Days. Minutes would be enough for you to have screwed us over royally."

"Thanks buddy, you make me feel so special," she quips.

"I'm serious. These shucks came in and screwed us up, why should we think they're going to do anything else now?" Minho's voice has an ice in it, a scary seriousness, "I ought to smash your shuck nose."

Newt leers, "I'd like to see his rat nose smashed."

But Janson doesn't twitch, "you've been warned of the consequences should you try to harm me."

Ada slams her tea down and stands up.

"Do you think I care? You put chemicals in my brain, right? Ones that make me low, suicidal. Big mistake. Do you think I care if you shoot me? I'd happily die right now if it meant I got to crush your face under my boot."

"Let's all just slim it. Hear him out." Thomas had been watching from the sidelines for a while and when he spoke his voice was even and level.

Minho, Newt and Ada stay standing but don't make any move towards the man.

"Before you make your decisions I'd also like to tell you who is not immune. I feel it may sway some decisions." The room tenses, "in Group A- Isaac Newton."

Thomas damn near doubles over; Minho's hand shoots to his hair, grabbing a hunk and pulling; Ada clenches her bad hand until the pain takes over but Newt - Newt just stands there.

"Slim it. We all thought we were going to die anyway, I'm over it." His arms are folded and his expression unreadable but Ada can almost feel the lack of caring in his voice and she hates the Wicked did this to him. Hates them for putting out his flame.

Janson rattles off a few more names but no one else from Group A and even if there was, Ada doubts any of them would have heard. Everyone just stares at Newt, mourning him before he's even gone.

"We'll leave you to discuss your decisions. Remember, we're not going to force the removal on you."

With that he leaves and everyone remains in silence.

"Wicked is good." The phrase is so unexpected but from the most expected place.

Teresa.

"Excuse me?" Minho.

"Wicked is good." She repeats, looking round the room, "of all the things I could remember, why would I make myself remember that? It must have been true to me then. So I'm going to do it and you should too."

"I agree!" Aris shouts.

"Then I'm out." Minho glances at his friends.

"Me too." Newt.

"Yep." Ada.

"Definitely. Those shuck people aren't getting anywhere near my brain." Thomas.

They stare round the room but no one will meet their gaze.

Rat Man comes back in and ushers them out, "if you follow me and I'll take you to the rooms. We have six to a room so you'll be scattered about."

The first room is Newt and a few female Gladers. Newt is the only one to back out, he is instructed to stick with them until the last room.

As Ada leaves the room Harriet calls after her, Ada turns round and approaches the girl, they look at each other for a moment before Harriet leans in.

Pressing her lips to Ada's. Ada presses back.

The kiss is brief and sweet, powerful.

It's a kiss of respect, of goodbye.

Of wishing I could have known you better.

She likes her, strong and independent - her kind of woman.

Ada pulls away a moment later, "good luck."

"You too." They shake hands and she walks out.

Some of the Gladers share a smirk but she ignores them, she has great respect for Harriet as a person and a leader.

In the next room is Ada and some more Group B. "No way am I putting my head near that."

She is told to stay with Newt, she reaches out and loops her fingers through his but he pulls it away.

"Newt, please." She whispers.

"I'm fine. It really doesn't bother me." He replies before speeding up.

They get to there last room and the remaining Gladers are called. Brenda is there and she hugs Thomas, whispering something in his ear as he does so.

Him and Teresa share some quiet words and she walks to her bed.

The four remaining Gladers share a glance, getting ready to attack but Rat Man must sense the tension in the room because he says, "don't think of doing any thing stupid . We've got guards on the way."

Ada almost weeps.

She was right.

 **A/N am I the only one who, when Ada put her tea down, imagined someone handing their earrings to their friend before a fight?**

 **Also, bet y'all forgot she's bi right?**

 **Well, boom.**


	20. Rebels

Moments later six guards filed into the room with strange looking guns that give Ada a strange feeling of recognition.

"We waited too long, we should've just bloody gone." Newt snaps.

"They would've caught us anyway. Be patient." Thomas mutters back.

Janson walks over to one of the guards and taps his weapon, "these are called Launchers. Not deadly but they'll give a very powerful electric shock when used. Guards, do not be afraid to use them on these rebels - whatever force necessary. Take them to the room and give them a chance to dwell on their mistakes."

"I thought we were free to decide by ourselves." Thomas growls.

"You are. And you will be locked away until you change your decision." Janson holds the door open, "now, if you don't mind. I'm quite busy."

Each of the 'Rebels' gets a guard who walks with them, gripping their arms or dragging them along, and then a guard at the front of the group and one at the back. All with their weapons trained on the kids.

Ada snorts, "six guards for four kids? We must have you scared."

"Don't make us use these, you have zero room for error. One step out of line and we pull the trigger." One of the guards says.

Ada has to be picked up and carried in the end because the second the guard touched her she took her feet off the floor; Newt flails like a wild animal; Thomas clenches his fists, biding his time and Minho's guard drags him along the floor, like a petulant child in a supermarket.

Ada kicks and punches at her guard but he has her pinned over his shoulder, she tries beating his back and head but he has padding, eventually they are pushed into a room. Minho's guard drags him to a bed and steps back, he leaps up only to find an invisible wall has been erected; Newt's guard does the same; Thomas's guard lets him walk in by himself, but Thomas knows if he tries anything he'd be quickly overpowered and he'd have to leave his friends behind. Ada is thrown in and the door slammed behind her.

"Shit. That man had a tight grip." She groans standing up and rubbing her back.

"Everyone okay?" Thomas asks.

"Yeah. That guard didn't mind slamming me into a wall or two though." Minho groans.

"Newt?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." The boy snaps.

Ada looks around at their room, two bunk beds and a little kitchenette with a set of table and chairs - nailed down, Ada notes. Looks like they learned.

"What're you grinning at?"

"When they locked me in the room, for a few days I barricaded myself in with the furniture. I was just thinking, looks like they learned." She grins. Minho's eyes crinkle in a look that could be pride.

"You know when Brenda hugged me?" Thomas says out of the blue. "She said something. She said only to trust her and Chancellor Paige."

"What's her problem anyway? She made a huge deal because Ada didn't trust her in the Scorch and the she's working for the anyway?" Newt asks.

"She's wearing a woollen jumper." Ada says, looking through the cupboards in their little kitchen.

"What?"

"Guilt. It's like an itchy jumper. It eats and eats at you until you can't handle it, but she can't take it off, she can't leave Wicked, they'd kill her and so she helps Thomas out in little ways and it makes her feel better."

"Right... What do we do for now then?"

"We sit. We wait. Give it a few days and something will happen. If they wanted us dead they'd kill us."

"Cheery." Minho smirks.

"Right. Eat this." Ada had been piling things up in her arms and laid them out on the table. It was just ham and cheese sandwiches, a bag of crisps each and bottled water but it would do.

They eat in silence and after food everyone goes to bed.

Ada is strategically given the bed furthest from the door, she notices what they're doing but rolls her eyes and goes with it.

Minho gives her a leg up onto the top bunk and settles into the bunk below her.

Newt sleeps with his back to the room, hunched over and Thomas' snores soon fill the room.

Once everyone is settled the light goes off, they're being watched.

After what Ada feels is an hour she is still awake. She is lying flat on her back staring at the plain ceiling and she sighs softly.

She hears movement below her and then Minho's face appears at her side, "can't sleep either?"

She shakes her head and Minho climbs in next to her. She sits up and leans against the wall, sitting on her pillow. He pulls himself up and sits against the wall so he's facing Newt and Thomas.

She lies her legs over his.

After a brief silence he whispers, "are you okay?"

"Okay?" She smiles. "My friend is dying from a long, slow disease and everything I know is false." She lets that hang in the air before sighing and saying, "sometimes I wish I was back in the Glade. I was only there a few days before everything went batshit but it was nice, we knew who our enemies were. Now? We're four unarmed kids against God knows how many and who knows what we'll actually find when we get out of here, for all we know this could be the good bit." She leans her head against the wall and looks at him, "how're you? You've been at this for two years now and the past few weeks you've not had a minute to cope with anything."

"I'm fine, I guess. I found Alby's death hard but we lost a lot of people that day. It kind of lessened the pain, you know?"

"One death is a tragedy. One thousand is a statistic." She says. "I understand that. It's good but what about Newt? He's dying, we can't ignore that and he's going to get worse, a lot worse."

"I know but he's my best friend. I'm just ignoring that he'll be gone soon. He's not dead until he's gone." He turns to face her. "We will get through this you know. We'll defeat Wicked and go somewhere better. Brenda told us that not everywhere looks like the Scorch, there are cities, places for people like us."

"Mentally scarred nearly insane teenagers?" She grins.

"That's not what I meant and you know it, I was trying to get my point across."

"I know. You really think we can get out of here? That we can get away from Wicked and live happily ever after in some village?"

"Yes. I have to. If I stopped believing we could escape this klunk I'd scream."

They sit in silence for a while, watching Thomas sleep.

"Promise me something?"

"Okay."

"If Wicked take me. If we start running and I get caught. You leave me and you don't let Newt or Thomas try and get back to me, okay?"

He doesn't respond for a moment. "Ada..."

"Promise."

He doesn't say anything.

"I get that you and Newt want to protect me, I get that but you've got to think of yourselves. If I get taken, you leave me behind. I don't want you dying because I fell over."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes. I'll try and stop them coming back."

"Good that."

He smiles sadly and she watches him.

She moves in, keeping eye contact and leaving him space to move away if he wants.

He moves into her, the space only remaining for a moment before their lips touch. Their faces press against each other, Ada suddenly becomes startlingly aware of Thomas snoring. She smiles against Minho's lips and he brings a hand to her waist, resting it just in the curve. Minho smells nice, like the soap that Janson gave her. She winds her hands round to his back and pulls him closer.

They pull their lips apart, but rest their foreheads against each other. Minho's breathing is audible but steady and Ada loves knowing she did that to him.

She removes her hands from his back and runs it through her hair. The corner of his mouth flicks up and he shuffles round so he can sit next to her.

She's not sure when it happens but they fall asleep, heads resting one on top of the other.

The next day the lights come on with such a startling suddenness that everyone wakes at once. Minho and Ada jump apart and she nearly falls off the narrow bunk but Minho's arm snaps out and pulls her back on, when the other two see this their reactions are quite the opposite.

Newt glares at the pair, as if by sleeping in the same bed they were betraying him.

Thomas' expression is one of childish joy, as if he'd been waiting for this day since he met them both.

Ada climbs out of the bed and heads to the kitchenette for food.

Minho and Newt share a nod but before Ada can put that cracker in her mouth Janson and the Launcher Gang enter.

"Rise and shine kids, we've decided to give you back your memories anyway."

Ada jumps up and has to refrain from running at the cocky man, the invisible force field is there and she cannot do with that, it hurts.

"Thought we got to decide for ourselves?" Thomas says, shockingly calm.

"We have decided that we cannot continue with you so in the dark, we're going to give you back your memories anyway. It will of course benefit Newt most of all."

Newt was stood, just a few steps from Janson, fists clenched, "I don't care about myself anymore."

Janson sensed the growing tension in the room, the boys all leaning against things with anger on their faces. Ada would have made some moment about West Side story if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation.

"Look, Newt, Minho, Ada, Thomas. I understand how you must feel. You've seen some awful things but we can't take those back. It would be a waste not to complete the blueprint at this point."

"Can't take it back? That's all you have to say!" Newt screamed in the man's face.

"Watch yourself." One of the guards raises their Launcher.

"We're running out of time. Let's go." Rat Man holds a hand to the door and the guards clear a space for the kids.

Minho approaches Newt, "he's right. If we can save you, why shouldn't we try, right? We'd be idiots not to try." And he walked past Rat Man and allowed himself to be stood next to, guard by his side.

Thomas is the next to fall, "let's just listen. I worked with these people once. I can't have been totally wrong."

"No! No! What the fuck are you doing?" Ada yells. She leaps to her feet, Newt grabs her by the wrist and glares into her eyes.

"Just bloody listen would you. They want to save my life."

She shakes her head in disbelief, "I can't believe you dicks." She allows herself to be taken down the hall, she knows she has no chance without her friends.

As she walks she sulks. Wicked, the evil corporation that has been responsible for every bad thing in the past few years of her life, are going to tinker in her brain.

And there's is nothing she can do.

"You'll all be heroes once this is over."

"Stick it shank." Ada likes these new swear words. They add to her vocabulary nicely.

"Where are the others?" Thomas inquires, Ada narrows her eyes, there's something in his voice.

"The other subjects-"

Before he can finish, Newt slams him against the wall and yanks his head back, "Call them subjects and I'll break your bloody neck."

A Launcher is pointed at the back of Newt's head.

"Don't hurt him. Let's just get this over with." Janson says, Newt is pulled off him and his guard grips him by the back of his shirt.

"Guys, I think we really need to do the right thing here." Thomas says, "I think we should do it."

"Thank you Tho-" before he can finish speaking Ada slams a fist in his face.

"Feel better?"

"Much."

Thomas slams his guard into wall; Minho lunges at his and they collapse to the floor, Minho slamming his fists repeatedly into his face; Ada knees hers, _that should be my trademark,_ she thinks _, stopping dicks having kids and Newt rips into his guard._

Ada glances round and sees a guard pointing his Launcher at her, she walks towards him hands in the air, "I surrender." But once she's close enough she grabs his gun and slams it into his face.

Thomas' guard has him pinned to the floor and is about to shoot him in the head with his Launcher.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ada presses the barrel of her own into the guards head, "drop the gun and stand up."

The fight has stopped around them.

The other guard does as he's told, hands in the air.

"Tommy, get the gun. Right, where are our friends? And where's the exit?" The disengaging of a safety alerts Ada that somebody stands behind her, a gun presses itself into her back.

"Drop it Miss Lovelace."

"Rat Man, should've killed you when I had the chance." She passes the gun back to him and two pissed off looking guards grab each of her arms.

"Miss Lovelace will be first." Janson turns away before adding, "Oh and, make sure they sedate her."

Ada is dragged into a room where Brenda waits, the guards drag Ada to a bed and hold her down, "Janson says sedate her."

"No. No please don't. Shit. Brenda please!" Ada throws herself about on the bed but her guards are strong and probably have as much muscle in their body as she does in regular weight.

Brenda comes towards her with a needle, a strange gun. At the last moment she stumbles, the needle sticks one of the guards who subsequently collapses.

Before the other can even notice anything wrong she flings her legs round, the man stumbles to the floor and she smashes a fist into his face, knocking him out.

"Well that went-"

Ada spins round and shoves Brenda against a wall.

"Hey! I was helping. I did that on purpose."

Waiting a few moments to make sure Brenda has absorbed the full extent of her menace Ada moves back. They each grab a weapon and leave the room, Brenda first. Ada makes sure to keep a weapon trained on the girl, she doesn't quite trust her yet.

"We need to get Newt, Tommy and Minho and then we need to find everyone else."

Brenda leads them to a door and signals to her to be ready, she swipes a key card and the doors swing open.

Ada fires at Rat Man before his stupid face even has the chance to recognise anything wrong. The other guards are easily taken out - five against four.

"You okay?" Minho approaches Ada with his guards Launcher, checking it out.

"I thought you'd given in. Thought you'd actually given in."

"Never!" He looks at her, she looks powerful.

Her innocence has been fully torn from her.

He saw that when she was prepared to kill the guard in the hall and it killed him

"Guys. We don't have time." Brenda purses her lips, "if we can get to Jorge's Berg we'll be off and we'll have a good head start. There are cameras in here though so I have no doubt that there are guards on their way."

They hear shouts coming down the hall and Brenda points to people.

Minho and Newt one side; Thomas and Ada the other and Brenda behind Ratty's desk.

They manage to quickly over power the guards and make it out into the hall just in time for the alarms start and the lights turned red.

"More will be on their way. We should get out of here, we don't know where your friends are and we can't hold many more guards off I'm nearly out of ammo."

"Me too."

"Yeah."

"Same here."

"Let's get to the armoury and then we can stock up and make our way to the Berg Hangar." Brenda marches off in what one can only assume is the right direction.

They slow as they reach an open door, "this is it. But it shouldn't just be open."

"So... What does that mean?" Newt gives an irritated sigh.

"Someone's setting us up." Ada sighs, "we're being played." She slumps against a counter.

"Would you stop being such a baby!"

"Newt? You alright buddy?"

"Alright? Yeah. I'm dandy. Except I'm dying from a- what was it? 'Long, slow disease'." Newt turns his back on them.

"Newt, what's going on?" Ada rubs her neck.

"I'm going to get worse, a lot worse and you can't keep ignoring that I'll be gone soon." There's a rabid look in his eyes and he barges past everyone and walks up the hallway.

"We don't have time. We'll find him once we've got our weapons." Brenda grabs guns and Launchers off the wall and hands them out.

Ada wraps a hand round Minho's bicep, holding him with her and trying to be comforting at the same time.

Once they're fully weighed down with weapons they turn to set off but Newt stands in the doorway, "I need to give Ada something."

"What?"

"I need to give Ada something alone."

Ada glances at the others who nod and she follows him out, he stuffs a letter in her hand, "what is this?"

"Just- you'll know when to open it."

"No. Tell me when to open it or I open it now." She demands.

"Open it when I'm Gone." But she doesn't get to ask anything else, he stomps back into the armoury.

He goes into the room and accepts some weapons from Brenda.

"You cowardly dick."

"Excuse me?"

Ada stands in the doorway, the opened note in her hand. Her breathing short and rapid.

"'Kill me'? Really? You think after everything I would do that?"

"You asked her to..." Minho runs his hand through his hair and Ada regrets making it so loud. This wasn't fair to put on Minho.

"Newt, I'm sorry. That was unfair but I can't... I don't..."

"Understand? What it's like to be going insane? To be irritated by everything? To hate everyone that you love? To feel so angry all the time."

"I can't imagine what it's like for you now but we will find a cure for you. We will and you have to believe that because I can't lose you and I know Minho's a sarcastic little klunk and Thomas doesn't say it a lot but we love you. Okay? We love you and you're our friend, we will find something to make you better. Cure you."

Newt studies Ada's face for a moment before checking his guns, "should we go?"

Ada purses her lips but they all follow Newt into the hallway, "which way?"

In answer she sets off down a hallway and they follow her. Minho walks next to Ada, "did they really do that to you? Make you hurt yourself?"

She nods, "for the Variables."

"Fucking Variables." The grip Minho has on his gun shows white knuckles and she wishes she could just stop. Stop right there, lie down on the floor and cry.

This Flare had destroyed her friends.

Newt was dying.

Minho was bottling everything up, holding his anger inside.

Thomas was going after a girl with poison in her veins.

And Chuck.

Poor, innocent Chuck.

Even Gally, even Gally, was probably a good guy before the illness screwed him over. Before Wicked invaded him.

Which gets her thinking about Gally, when he tried to grab her.

"Brenda?"

"Mm."

"Wicked can control us right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know who in our group they controlled?"

"Umm... some kids from before you were there, they'd make them run the wrong way, into a Griever but after?" She stops dead, "Gally, that kid who touched you? They wanted him to. They used the thing in your brain to control him, figured it would be good for the Variables."

"Now I feel bad for stabbing him." Ada titters, "And when he stabbed Chuck, right?"

Brenda bites her lip, "you won't want to hear this, but they controlled Chuck too. Some scientist thought it would make for good Variables. From both side."

Ada shuts her eyes.

"Please. We have to keep-"

 _Are you- fucking telling me- that some science guy- thought it would be fun- to WATCH A CHILD DIE? THAT THEY MADE CHUCK KILL HIMSELF? FOR THEIR FUCKING VARIABLES._ Ada's head swarms with anger and she has to refrain from hitting something, all she can do is hold back from screaming like a toddler and march on.

"After we've gotten free of this place, we are coming back. With an army and we are going to level this place until we find that scientist and I will stab him and watch him bleed out." The lack of emotion in her voice frightens the others but they nod. They were angry too.

The stroll into the Hangar, it's big and airy. Which Ada finds nice after being locked up for several weeks.

"Jorge?" Brenda calls out and a groan comes out in reply.

They run over to check and there, on the floor gagged and bound, is Jorge. Brenda frees him and he groans, rubbing his head.

"That girl of yours has a mean streak, hermano."

They glance at each other, confused.

"Who? Who did this?"

"That Teresa girl. Her and your friends."

A/N If my updates become slow it's because I'm writing at the point I'm reading now so I have to read and read and then write for a bit. Sorry.

Anyway, what do you think?

Minho and Ada!

Yay!


	21. Chips

"Teresa? She was here?" Jorge nods, "I can't believe she left without even trying to find us." Thomas looked like a puppy whose owner had just kicked him.

"Good news is she's gone, they're all free." Brenda steps forward and helps her friend to his feet.

"It doesn't make sense. Teresa's been acting like their number one fan lately. Why would she escape? It has to be some kind of trick, right? Brenda, are there more trials? Is that what this is?" Ada felt bad for Thomas, he wanted so badly for Teresa not to have betrayed him, but she did. She had.

"I don't know anything about more Trials. Why is it such an awful idea that the other subjects tried to escape? They just did it better."

Minho practically snarls at the woman, "call them subjects one more time and I swear to shuck I'll smack you one, girl or no girl."

"Minho don't be a dick. Brenda call us subjects one more time and I'll hit you myself." Ada gives a look that says, 'are we done?' and turns to look at the Berg, "that one yours?" Jorge nods, "it's a beauty. Now can we get going? Longer we hang about more chance there is that we'll get caught."

As she says it the door to the Hangar swings open and a bunch of black clad guards enter.

"How do we get out now?" Someone whispers behind Ada.

"Newt, Ada, Minho. Stay here and cover us. Me, Brenda and Thomas will go for the Berg. I'll start the engines and the other two can cover you."

Before any objections can be made the three of them are off and Minho, Newt and Ada shoot. Firing at the guards, missing more than they hit.

"Shuck it." Ada glances round at the others to see Brenda on the floor, she'd been hit. Jorge was in the Berg and Thomas crouched by her body.

Ada leaps to her feet and sprints to her, she grabs the girls body however the moment she does she realises her mistake, bolts of lightning shoot into her body. Minho and Newt are by her side, pulling her and Thomas towards the Berg.

Someone grabs Ada's shirt and uses it to drag her along the floor, Brenda still clutched between her fingers.

They make it to the ship in time for Ada to sit up wearily and watch Thomas fall to the floor. The others haven't noticed, they think he's with them.

She jumps and and grabs the boy, making sure not to make contact with his skin she pulls him back to the ship. A hot pain burns through her leg but she screams and carries on powering through the pain.

When she's in reach of the Berg the boys pull her back and she stumbles onto the open ramp. She plonks down and watches, with great amusement as the guards run at the Berg. She gives a wave and flops back as the door slams shut.

After they're in the air, Ada helps lift Thomas and Ada into beds and has a shower. By she's dried herself off and gotten dressed, the others are asleep and she sets off to explore the Berg. Intrigued by its vastness.

She explores the guards locked and manages to find herself a few cigarettes and a lighter. She also finds a nice backpack and some spare clothes. She fills the pack with food and what she assumes is a credit card and stashes it before heading to the cockpit.

"Hey Jorge."

"Hello."

"Do you wanna rest? We could stop somewhere?"

"Not a bad idea, hermana. There's a clearing a little way ahead, I'll stop there."

Once they've stopped Ada lowers the ramp, grabs a launcher and heads outside. She plonks herself down on the ramp and lights up.

She lies back on the ramp, enjoying the peace, probably the only real relaxation she'd be getting for a while.

"Is that Bliss?" Newt stands in the doorway behind her, "Brenda showed me some, said I could use it if I wanted."

"No it's a cigarette, wanna try?"

"You mean the death sticks?" She holds it up for him and he takes it. He inhales and she laughs when he splutters.

"The first is always horrible. They get better with time." She takes it back and takes a long drag.

"I'm pretty sure that's Bliss. Smells like it." He sits next to her.

"I found them in some Guard's locker. Maybe it is."

"I wouldn't recommend smoking more than one then. We've got work to do."

She stubs it out and puts the stub next to her. "I'll bin it in a bit. Should probably chuck the rest of them too." But she makes no movement.

A rustling in the woods makes her sit bolt upright, she grabs her Launcher, "get inside Newt. Tell the others."

Newt slowly back up and she hears his feels pound the second he's through the door.

"Who's there?"

"I just want your noses."

"What?" A light laugh escapes her mouth but it stops the second she makes out the source. A haggard woman stands, covered in scratches but the worst thing?

Her nose.

Or lack thereof.

"Miss, where's your nose? Who- what took it?"

"Rose took my nose I suppose." The woman laughs and around her a ripple of laughter, crazed, manic laughter echoes. The woman starts stumbling towards her.

"Miss. Back up. I have a Launcher and I will shoot you."

"But I just want your noses." The woman whines, actually whines.

"Miss." Ada has no clue why she's being so polite. This woman, this creature, wants to chew her face. That's not awfully polite.

A pounding of footsteps behind Ada lets her know her friends are there.

"Hello noses." A horrifying grin contorts the woman's face.

"Guys. Get back. Jorge, get us in the air."

"On it." The man disappears back into the ship.

"Miss, please. I don't want to have to use this." Ada says, levelling the gun at the woman's chest.

"I only want your noses." The woman grins and leaps at Ada who fires but misses.

The other noseless people lunge out of the woods. Behind her Ada here's gun fire and presumes the others have started shooting, she lashes out at the woman, forcing her thumbs into the woman's eye sockets and pushing.

Before anything too disgusting happens the woman is dragged off Ada and thrown over the ramp, which now hovers about two metres in the air.

The last of the Death Eaters are shoved over the side and Ada brushes herself off, "Freaking Voldemort weirdo."

"You okay?"

"Fine."

But she's not. She'd escaped worse, so much worse.

But that?

That was the most terrifying thing she'd had to experience, the sheer fear in that woman's eyes. That woman knew, knew what she was doing and wanted out.

Ada should have shot her when she had the chance.

A short while later and they're sitting in the Food Room, "so what's our next move?" Ada nurses a cup of tea and rocks back on her chair.

"Denver. That's where your friends went. Jorge's covered our tracks and theirs so Wicked can't follow us."

Ada smiles sadly, "always wanted to go to Denver."

"It's a little different than you'll remember."

"Figured that, since Mexico has become a literal dessert."

"Well, Denver is pretty tough on people with the Flare. They send them to this place called the Crank Palace so Newt has to wait in the Berg once we get there."

"I'll stay with him." Ada says quickly.

Newt responds quickly, "no, you'll go with them. If that's what the Cranks are like... I don't want to do that to you."

"No. I want to stay with you. I'll make sure you're tied down or whatever but I'm not leaving." Minho narrows his eyes at her but she ignores him.

Newt folds his arms, "fine."

When they reach Denver the others leave, shooting worried looks at Ada but nobody says anything. Once they're gone Newt hands Ada some handcuffs he found. She takes it in, "hot. But I'm not into that."

He frowns, "just cuff me okay? I don't want to hurt you."

"No. And I'm not killing you either. Not till you're Gone."

"So you'll do it." The relief in his voice kills Ada.

"Yes. I'll do it."

They sit and sip tea, waiting for the others to come back in silence.

"Do you think they're okay?"

"They're fine. They're fighters."

"Are you okay?"

"No."

"Newt."

"I'm not going to lie."

"I don't want you to. I just want you to be happy. I want you to be Immune."

"I can't do shuck all about that."

"I know."

 _Maybe I should go back to Wicked. Maybe we can make a cure in time._

"Ada?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you bloody dare."

"What?"

"Don't you dare go back to Wicked. They're monsters."

"But-"

"No."

"Newt-"

"No."

"Stand up. Hands on your head and don't you dare move." The barrel of something pressed into Ada's head.

"Ada, do as they say."

"Newt?"

"Ada. Do as they say."

She stands shakily, hands on her head.

"We're gonna test you for the Flare." Ada's eyes widen as they say this, not Newt. A small machine is brought to her face and she lets it do its thing, "we got a Munie."

"Serious?" The man laughs in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"Woah." They'd just finished testing Newt, "looks like your boyfriend's Fecto missy."

"Your machine's wrong." Ada wants to dive at the man but the gun is still pressed against her head.

"Machine doesn't lie. We're taking him in, you get a free pass into Denver though sweet." Ada lunges forward but the man with the gun to her head grabs her.

"You get the easy ride darling. Don't fight us, we could easily sell you off to Wicked." At the mention of her foes she stills.

"Newt, I'll find you. I'll bring the others." She yells as they pull her from the room.

The look the boy gives her as she's dragged from the room is an awful, hopeless fear, "don't bother."

"Let me get my bag? It's got food and clothes in." The man allows her to grab her pack.

Minutes later she's thrown onto the streets of Denver, she leaps up and hammers at the door, "let me out you shuck bastards!"

But no one comes.

"Miss Lovelace?"

She spins to find a man, walking towards her, she smirks, "welcoming party?"

He hands her a card, turns around and walks off.

Dear Glader,

We heard you escaped from Wicked and would like your help to bring down the organisation once and for all. If you would like our protection come to the Right Arm headquarters at Corner of Kenwood and Brookshire. Apartment 2792.

The Right Arm.

 _What? The Right Arm? What a dumb name? Do I go? What if it's Wicked? One way to find out._

With that her decision is made and she flags down a taxi. The man drives her there after gruffly asking for payment first, she takes the card from her bag and taps it to his.

 _How did I know to do that?_

But she arrives and looks up at the awful, run down building.

She looks around and finds a shard of glass, tears off a strip of clothing and wraps it round the shard.

 _Now I'm armed. And hopefully dangerous_.

She grimaces at her own joke before walking into the building. The building creaks as she walks through it but she tries to look threatening.

2792\. This is it.

She raps on the door, her glass shard behind her slightly.

The door swings open and Ada backs up when she sees who's behind it.

"Gally?"

"Ada." He holds out an arm to welcome her in.

"What're you- why did you-"

"I'll explain everything once you're inside. Now please." He gestures again for her to enter and she holds out the shard.

"I warn you, I'm armed."

He laughs a little, "I have learned what you can do with a weapon. Now come in."

She walks past him and her stomach does a flip as their skin touches. She knows it wasn't him that day but it still makes her sick to think about it.

The door shuts and before she can get too far down the hall he touches her shoulder gently, "you should know, that wasn't me. I didn't want to do those things, any of it."

"I know." She says, her entire energy focused on his hand, touching her shoulder. His hand. Touching her.

She feels something brush her thigh. Tears come to her eyes and she shakes uncontrollably. She holds the shard up and waves it around her

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!"

"Ada I'm not- I'm not touching you!"

Looking around she can see a terrified Gally at the other end of the hall but she can also feel his hand.

On her thigh.

"Get your shuck hands off me!"

"Ada- I'm- I don't-"

A door behind her slams open and someone grabs her, pulls her to the floor. Wrestles the glass from her hand.

"Get off me!" She howls, tears stream from her face.

Something sticks into her neck.

"Get... Off... Me..." She drifts off.

"Ada? Are you okay?" She opens her eyes and looks around, she's in a dingy apartment. Gally's apartment.

"Oh god." She puts a hand to her head.

"Ada, you okay?"

She glances up to see Minho, holding her shard.

"What happened?"

"You freaked out. Brenda had a sedative in her bag, we had to use it. You nearly stabbed Gally."

"I- I had this thing. He put his hand on my shoulder and I could feel his hand on my thigh, like before, in the Glade."

"Brenda says it's called a flashback, when he touched you, she thinks it triggered something. You've been having nightmares too, I know you have. Apparently going through trauma does that to a person." Minho sits down on the mattress next to her, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I feel so awful, I could've killed him."

"You didn't though."

Silence hangs in the air for a while before Ada decides to break the news.

"Some people got into the Berg. They took Newt." She sits up but Minho puts a hand on her shoulder.

"I know. When you turned up here Jorge went to the Berg, we figured something went wrong. Newt left a note for us said you were in Denver somewhere and we shouldn't go looking for him."

"We are going to go though, right?"

Minho grins, "of course."

Ada gets given some food by a nervous Gally and she sits eating, "I didn't mean to... to do any of that. I'm sorry."

"Is fine. Brenda explained everything, I should've thought."

"What happened to you? I thought Wicked had you."

"They did but the Right Arm had people on the inside, giving me info. Said if I pretended to have gone nuts they'd send me away and they did. Once I was out of the Complex they ambushed us, got me here."

Minho comes in, "Jorge says we need to get going. Have to go see someone bout the chips in our heads."

"Right. Maybe I'll see you again Gally." She heads to the door but at the last moment spins to face him and mock salutes, "so long and thanks for all the fish."

His forehead creases but he smiles slightly and shakes his head. She leaves the building and they head for the hotel that the others had got the day before.

"We got you some clothes. I tried to find clothes similar to what you wore in the Glade, you requested those you know? You wanted that outfit." Brenda says as they walk.

"Really? Past me had good taste in one thing at least." She smiles.

"We only have two beds so either people share or people floor it."

"I call a bed." Minho calls from the head of the group.

"Fine, Thomas?"

"I'll go bed. You and Jorge got one last night."

"Alright. Ada?"

"I've slept enough. I'll stay up guard."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Here we are." They walk into a slightly less bad looking building.

Ada sits up with a Launcher in her hand and jumps at anything that moves.

The next day, the moment a beam of light enters the room Jorge is up and everyone else slowly comes to life.

"Anything happen?" Jorge asked, splashing his face with water.

"Nah. Breakfast?"

"We're gonna have to eat on the road, the sooner we get those things out of your heads the better."

Once everyone was up they set off.

"Can we trust this guy? What's his name? Hans, is it? Ha. I knew a guy called Hans once, total ass," she lets that hang in the air, humming some song about Sandwiches and Marriage.

"What did he do?" Minho asks, obviously irritated by her lack of explanation.

"Well, he had lots of brothers so he knew he'd never get to rule his own country and he went to someone else's to woo the princess. Then he made her fall in love with him and after a day - a day - they get engaged. Then the princesses sister gets stressed and freezes everything and then later on the guy tries to decapitate her."

Minho stops dead, "are you talking about a film?"

"Yes. But just because it's in a film, doesn't mean it isn't real."

"Well, this Hans is trustworthy. And we need him to remove your chips anyway," Brenda rolls her eyes, putting an end to the conversation.

They walk for a little while before reaching a small building. When they find his apartment a women opens the door.

"We're here to see Hans." Brenda states.

"No Hans here lovey, best try elsewhere." She smiles sympathetically.

"We're here to see Hans."

"No Hans here." The woman says, tension is rising.

Ada rolls her eyes and tries to shove past the woman, "Look, just let us in yeah?"

The woman shoves back, "no. Go away."

Minho pulls Ada back before she can shove back.

"Please." Brenda pleads, "he's a friend."

"Let them in." A greying man with a heavy set jaw appears over the woman's shoulder.

She gives the group one last look before turning away and walking back inside. Thomas and Brenda share a look before heading inside and Ada checks the hall in last time before shutting the door.

Hans is sat at an old table in the middle of a tiny kitchen, two seats wait round the table and Brenda, Thomas and Jorge get them so Minho and Ada lean against the counter.

"Brenda, Jorge, good to see your okay but I'm not in the mood for a catch up so why don't you tell me what you're here for?" The man's voice is low and gravely.

"Two things. First I think you know. These people were part of the Trials and we need to get the chips deactivated before Wicked gets control. Second Wicked have a bounty on your head, once we're done you need to take your wife and run."

"Still got your chips, eh?" He has the temperament of a fun uncle it seems. Ada's almost shocks he doesn't try pulling a coin from behind her ear.

"I don't want my memories back. Just want the controlling part gone."

The man almost looks offended. "What kind of coward have you brought to me?"

"We're not cowards," Ada snarls, "we were brought up under Wicked force fed their beliefs. I already remember more than I'd like to about who I was, I don't want to know anymore."

The man regards Ada with a lack of emotion before standing and lumbering out of the room, "I'll do the boy first."

Ada glances at Minho who flicks her a smile, "you look scared Ada."

"We're going under the knife of a man in an apartment block. I'd be an idiot if I wasn't scared." But she was, she was terrified and she hated that, pure fear. She wanted to curl up on the floor, _stop being such a baby. If he doesn't do this you could be controlled, like Gally, like Chuck,_ she scolds herself internally and Minho reaches out and places his hand on hers but she reaches up to brush her hair out of her face and doesn't put it back.

"Thomas? You okay?" He'd slumped his head on the table and Brenda put her head down his level.

Suddenly he jerks up, "I... Can't let you do this."

"What?" Minho laughs as if any moment Thomas would grin and it would have been a strange prank.

Thomas stands up and his legs start walking him to the door, "I can't let you do this."

Ada hears something, a falseness to his voice, a kind of pleading helplessness.

"Wicked. They've got his chip."

"But how?"

"I don't know. I don't know, we need to- to pin him down."

"I can't let you do this." Behind Thomas' eyes a light turns on, he agrees but a knife appears in his hand and he waves it at the group. He starts making his way up the hallway, backing up the whole way.

"Thomas. There's a man behind you!" Ada yells and he spins round, taking her chance she leaps at his back. Trying to grab the knife but his grip is amazingly strong.

"I can't let you do this!" He shouts as the others grab at him, Ada clings to his back for dear life, only loosening her grip slightly when his fist connects with her face but eventually he topples over and she wriggles from under him. Jorge grabs he boys hand and slams it against the floor until he releases the knife.

"I can't let you do this."

"Shut your shuck mouth Tommy." Minho snaps.

Everybody grabs a limb and they drag him down the hallway and heave him onto the operating table.

Hans injects him calmly and fetches Ada an ice pack for her face.

Once Thomas has had his operation Jorge and Brenda sneak up on Ada and Minho and inject them, they did not need a repeat of Thomas.

Surrounded by a haze Ada dreams.

"Him." A photo of a young Minho sits on a screen.

"You want him?" Aris frowns.

"Yes. He's... He's strong. I think he'll be a good leader."

The four others glare at her.

"He's strong and intelligent. He'll be good in there, work well with the other subjects."

The dream washes away and a new scene appears.

"Ada?" Aris stands in the door to her room.

"Hmm?"

"Can I talk with you?"

"Certainly." She beams, if she was to do this it would have to look genuine.

"People are talking. They think you're not dedicated to the cause."

"Of course I am. I've just been distracted lately." She twiddled her hair like those girls in the books she reads.

"Oh?" He blushes.

"Yes. It's quite embarrassing, I'll have to block it all out. It's just difficult, because, well, I'm around you all day." The moment she says it she puts a hand to her mouth, "I've said too much."

He smiles slightly and sits next to her on her bed. "I've been feeling the same way."

"You have?" She flutters her eyelashes and bites her lip in what she hopes is an innocent gesture.

"Yes." He picks his lips and glances at hers.

She leans in and kisses him softly on the cheek. She wants to gag. This whole situation made her sick.

"I had best be going but I'll- I'll be back later." Aris says as he stands.

She doesn't look up when he leaves but moments later another figure waits at her door.

"So you did it?" Thomas.

"Yes."

"And?"

"Hook, line and sinker."

"It's going to kill him if he finds out it was a play."

"Yes. I know. Same it will Teresa."

"Our fate is determined by how far we are prepared to push ourselves to stay alive - the decisions we make to survive. We must do whatever it takes to endure and make it through alive." He quotes.

"You shouldn't watch that stuff. They're wiping your memory before they put you into the Glade, no explorer will be of any use."

He walks off and the memory fazes out.

She tries to plunge into her young self's mind, she sees things.

Ordering the deaths of scientists, something called the Purge.

Her mum - her real mum - with glaring eyes, clawing at the door of their house. It floods back to Ada all too quickly, her mother had gotten the Flare, Janson - her father - had tried to force Ada to take care of her. Had made her feed her and bathe her.

Once her mother had gotten bad enough that Ada risked her life entering the room the 6 year old had taken things into her own hands, poisoning her mother's tea.

 _Six._

 _I was six._

 _That sick rat had made a six year old look after her mother._

Memories come, Janson screaming at her, calling her selfish for not wanting to go near her mother. Calling her devil spawn. Hitting her. Smacking her. Sending her flying across the room.

Once her mother was gone Janson had dragged her to Wicked, handed her over and refused to let her near him.

In her anger Ada scrunched her face sending an awful dull ache through her brain.

She blinks herself awake and when she wakes she's sitting on a sofa, Thomas flopped over her lap.

Muttering angrily to herself about rats and the Flare she doesn't notice Minho slumped in a chair near by.

"What's up?" He groans through his own medicated fuzz.

"I remembered some things, about Ratty. When we see him, I want him dead. Like stone cold." She wants to get up, stretch but Thomas looks exhausted, he needs the sleep.

Minho seems startlingly awake all of a sudden, as if her remembering that Janson was an abusive parent would help. "What do you remember?"

"My mother and Janson."

Minho crouches next to her, balancing on the balls of his feet, at the mention of their main enemy he wrinkles his nose, "Janson?"

"Yeah. He's my dad- my father. Biologically." Minho doesn't say anything so she carries on, "turns out he made little me, six year old me, take care of my Flare infected mother. Feed her, wash her. Even after she'd passed the Gone. I killed her Minho. Poisoned her food, that's why I'm here."

"Why?"

"When he found out what I'd done he said he was so disgusted by the sight of me, said I was devil spawn and should be killed and I was lucky that he felt nice enough to let me help with the Cure."

"Slinthead."

"I just hate him, hate what he did to that little girl. She was so innocent and he ruined it." She pauses for a moment before grinning and saying, "you know, I'm the one who selected you? Because you looked like you were strong and a good leader were my exact words. I also said you looked intelligent."

"Yeah?" He smiles.

"Yeah," she laughs softly.

"We never talked about the other day. Never got the chance."

"No, we didn't get five minutes."

"I wanted to say... If you... Maybe... Wanted to-"

"What?"

"Well, you don't have to date me- I mean. That's not-"

She rolls her eyes and looks at him, "I won't say yes. I don't think going out would be a plan right at this moment, we've got bigger things to deal with but I'm not saying no. I like you Minho and you're a good guy. But everything that is happening, it makes things complicated enough without having to think of somebody else."

He looks disappointed for a moment before nodding decisively, "okay, I can agree to that."

"Good that."

She smiles and he leans towards her. Their lips brush for a moment before Thomas giggles, they leap apart.

"Don't let me interrupt, that was very sweet."

"Thomas." Ada warns.

"No, really. Carry on, I'll even leave the room." He stands up and walks out laughing.

Minho puts a hand in Ada's neck to keep her with him, stop her from running after the still laughing Thomas. He pulls her in, stopping moments before their lips touch, "am I- can I kiss you?"

"Certainly."

They kiss and it's full of anger and fire and passion. Full of every bit of klunk that they'd been through since Wicked invaded their lives and everyone they've lost.

Ada grabs for Minho's shirt, half dragging him onto the sofa over the arm but he doesn't complain.

The kiss is sloppy and messy and on more than one occasion do their noses collide or their teeth get in the way but it is good.

His hands running along her body, over every fat roll and every scar. Running through her hair and caressing her cheeks. She hooks her hands into the belt loops on his trousers.

 **A/N I wanted to say that the kiss in this one (Adho kiss) is more for me than anything else. Just the way it's described because I don't think she's self conscious but putting it in made me feel good. I'm not underweight and neither am I over but I have rolls of fat and I always feel like kisses are written where his hands run over her perfect curves etc and that's stupid - everyone has fat rolls.**

 **And yes, I gave them a ship name, bite me.**


	22. Red Shirts

Brenda storms in, "guys we really don't need this right now. Save the smooching for when we're all safe. Okay?"

Minho practically falls off Ada in his hurry to stand, Ada just stands and puffs her chest out. She did not need to apologise.

When no one says anything she starts again, "Hans wanted to say something before he leaves."

The man steps forward, "I wish I could be of more help but my wife is my priority. If you need anything someone will be able to find me for you, I'm sure." He steps back and Ada realises something, this man worked for Wicked, with them for a long time. He probably had as many dark memories of the building as she did.

"What next?" Brenda says after the man disappears down the hallway.

It is Thomas who decides to say what they've all been thinking, "We help the Right Arm. If they're right-" Ada snickers at the pun but a look from Brenda soon shuts her up, "and people are being sold to Wicked then we need to stop it from happening. No one is going through what we went through."

"So what do we do about it?"

"We help them. Get involved, after we get something to eat and find Newt. Because I am starving and Newt needs help."

They set off in search of a cafe and find a small one, it feels weird for Ada, how normal everything is but how not normal.

People sitting about reading and laughing but a man in a Red Shirt with a weird metal face mask stands in the corner, Launcher ready.

Ada nearly laughs when she notices the spaced out man in the corner. He sits staring about him, his eyes glassy but his expression full of - "Bliss." She whispers, it's clear why it's called Bliss. The man looks like he's in Heaven, floating through clouds.

"It's Bliss." Brenda has leaned in and is talking straight in Ada's ear, "he's got the Flare, I'd keep away. Don't make it obvious you're looking."

Ada averts her eyes but movement from the guard draws her attention, he approaches the spaced out man and uses a machine like the Red Shirts used on Ada and Newt in the Berg.

Almost the entire cafe tenses. If this man has the Flare, that means they could.

"Can you guys wait outside?" Brenda asks, nonchalantly.

"Umm- what happened to no more secrets?" Minho folds his arms.

"Minho, can you just- go?" Thomas asks and he rolls his eyes shut stands up. Ada does the same and Jorge just walks out.

"I'm just gonna have a look in that shop. I wanna see what people sell these days." Ada strolls off towards a shop that looks a little like a supermarket and enters, mooching the aisles for anything that could be nice.

She only looks up when she hears shouting, she heads to the big window at the front of them shop and watches as Brenda flies out of the coffee shop, just through the window she can make out Thomas, confronting the Red Shirt.

Minho stands in the doorway to the shop be forint sprinting off in the direction of Ada, "what the Hell is happening?"

"The guard- found out- Thomas is immune- selling him- death." Minho pants for a moment before standing up and they watch as he is dragged into the back of the shop.

"He's got a car back there." Ada says, before she realises what she's doing she sprints round the building and locates the Red Shirt's car. As Thomas and Red Shirt leave she shuffles herself under his car and clings on.

But they don't approach the Red Shirt's car, _makes sense. Connects him to the crime._ She pulls herself out from under the car and walks after them. The walk and walk until the Red Shirt gestures for Thomas to get into an unmarked car.

When the man turns away from Thomas she runs screaming at him, "HELP! My daddy he's got the Flare!" She tries to sound as ditzy as possible. Sometimes the stigma of being female really pays off.

He turns round and approaches the girl with a soft expression, "what's wrong sweetie?"

Her skin crawls and it takes everything in her to not smack him one, "my daddy went crazy. He just started getting all grumpy and now he can't remember anything." She whines, "it's totally ruining my birthday!" She makes sure to grab his arm in an gesture she hopes will make him more likely to walk away with the pretty girl and forget Thomas.

The man's face turns into an expression of determination, "okay sweetie. Just let me lock up this prisoner and you can show me where he is."

Damn. The man turns away and Ada goes to hit him over the head but before she gets the chance he spins and aims a gun at her chest.

"Not so fast. Sweetie." He gestures to the car with his gun, "two for the price of one. Not bad. Get in."

She climbs in next to Thomas and scowls at her own stupidity, she doesn't even notice the police car that swings round the corner ahead it's the gun fire that grabs her attention. The body of Red Shirt falls into her lap, his lifeless eyes staring at her.

"Miss Lovelace. Mr Eddison. We need you back."

Ada nearly throws up, Rat Man had found them.

"Get out of the car." They do as he says but there isn't Janson or his Launcher crew. Just a car with a TV screen built into the side.

"What's happening? How did you find us?" Thomas barrages the screen with questions.

"Through a lot of hard work and luck. You're lucky we found you, that man was a bounty hunter. A minute later and you'd have been gone."

"You're the one paying him." Ada grumbles.

Rat Man ignores her, "I'm going to be honest, we didn't come to Denver to get you because the infection rate is astronomical but we need you to come in, for the sake of the world. We'll leave you to make your own decisions."

"Why would we come in? After everything you've done?" Thomas snaps.

Rat Man smiles, like a proud father, Ada muses. "Because you're the last ones. Once we've finished with you two the Cure will be complete. You are the Final Candidates."

"Us? Why us?"

"That will be explained. We may even only need one of you, just one but I'll leave you to discuss it." The screen flicks off and the car disappears.

Minho shoots round the corner and Thomas and Ada just stand there, eyes wide.

"You kill him?"

Thomas looks up, a dumb grin on his face, "yeah, got out my machine gun and blasted him."

For once Minho doesn't appreciate the sarcasm and gives Thomas a look of total un-amusement before looking to Ada.

"What happened to you?"

"Rat Man."

"Janson?"

Ada nods.

"What did he say?"

"The cure is nearly ready. They need one of us."

"But you can't-"

"Newt. I can for Newt." Ada walks towards Minho, "I have to. We should go get him and bring him here. You guys can hide out and I'll go in, get the Cure and we're all gravy."

"No!" Minho pushes her away, "no gravy. Nothing. You are not going back to Wicked."

"Minho." She looks at him, into his eyes pleadingly, "if you had the chance to save him, would you?"

He stares at her, trying, desperately, to think of an answer but she knows he would. She knows he'd do anything to save him. He closes his eyes and turns away from her.

Brenda and Jorge have caught up by now and they feel the tension the moment they lay eyes on the group, "what happened?"

"We're going to the Crank Palace. Then I'm going to Wicked."

Nobody argues, everyone knows she's decided so they make their way back to the hotel. Once inside Ada tries to take guard duty again but Minho forces her to sleep, "you can't just protect everyone okay? Leave some hero for the rest of us." She flops grumpily onto the floor and sleeps uncomfortably. She doesn't dream at all and she enjoys not finding anything more out and even more so not having to replay the old tortures.

Thomas' snores wake her at around 4 and she catches a shower before changing into the clothes Brenda had bought her.

She admires herself in the mirror, _how 2015 am I?_ Before walking out to see Minho with the Launcher on the floor propped against the chair.

"Have a nice shower?"

"Yeah. Feel better now, clean." She smiles stretching out the crick in her back.

"Good, we'll get some food in a bit."

"I have some crackers in my pack, you want some?" She straightens up and grabs her bag.

"Sure."

"Minho?"

"What."

"Are you in a mood?"

"Because you're going back to Wicked and will probably die and I may never see you again? Nope."

She chucks the crackers at his head but he catches them, "I'm doing it for Newt. You didn't see that woman, her eyes. She was in there."

He doesn't speak, just pull open his crackers and eats them moodily.

One by one the others rise and they each have a packet of crackers and some water from the sink, they leave for the Berg and fly in silence.

When they arrive at the Crank Palace two tired looking Red Shirts waited, both holding Launchers. The group of them leave the Berg and the guards level the Launchers at their chests.

"Hey muchacho, we're from Wicked. One of our guys was brought here by mistake. We need him back." Jorge takes the reigns and no one complains.

"Don't give a damn about your fancy Wicked jobs." The taller of the two men snaps, "you wanna go party with the Cranks? Be my guest, 'specially after what's been happening lately. Welcome to Crank Palace. No refunds or exchanges."

"What's 'been happening lately'?" Thomas frowns.

"It's not a happy place and that's all you need to know."

"We're looking for a very particular... um... Crank." It was clear Thomas felt uncomfortable using the word to describe Newt.

"What's he look like?"

"Blond, long hair. Limp. Taller than me. His name's Newt." Thomas tried to make himself look bigger, tougher but it wasn't too easy.

"Might've seen someone like that. But knowing and telling are two different things. You follow?"

Ada elbows her way forward, the card she stole from Wicked in her hand, "we have money. Show us Newt."

"I want at least a thousand." The taller guard sneers. Ada nods sternly, "I strongly advise, should you lose a limb, leave it behind and run like Hell." With that he spins on his heels and opens the doors.

The Crank Palace was an awful run down place, clearly it had been nice once but Ada guessed, once the Cranks were introduced it fell through pretty quickly. Glass shards and rubbish lay everywhere and suddenly Ada felt very nervous.

The man described the complex, rings within rings. The place had a bowling alley and a cinema and several other 'leisure activities' but once the people had been introduced they tore it apart, put people with no hope and no reason to restrain themselves, "how do you punish people with no hope?" Had ripped it apart, along with other people and several of the guards.

Ada loses interest in what he's saying after a while and looks around at the tattered buildings, at one point a man wanders through the corridor with glassy eyes, like the Blissed out man from before.

They get left in the shade of some bins as the two guards wander off to find Newt and when the men come back the answer is like a stab in the gut.

"He said, quite pointedly, to piss off."

"I'll give you another thousand to take us to him and another for getting us to our Berg." Ada says before anybody else can talk. "Half now and half when we're safe in our Berg."

The man narrows his eyes but after a moment, he nods and holds out his own card. Ada taps them together and follows the man as he walks back in the direction he'd come from.

"Ada, why are you-"

"It's Wicked's money, remember?" Thomas nearly laughs as an wicked grin spreads across her face.

"There." The man points to a blond slumped figure that could only be Newt and Ada taps her card again.

"Wait here till we're all out and I'll give you three thousand." The men's eyes widen and she walks into, what looks like it used to be, a bowling alley.

The lanes are torn to shreds and there's holes in the walls and floor where Ada can only assume balls have been thrown.

"Newt." Minho's voice is full of fear and Ada feels her heart go out to him - that's his best friend, of two years. His only friend, near enough, left living.

"I said piss off." The voice that responds is gruff, angry, full of malice. Nothing like the Newt they know.

"Newt. You can't use my own words against me and you should know, if you come with me, I'm going to Wicked. They're going to do some tests and then the cure is ready. So get off your sulking ass and come with us." Ada had put on her best 'mum voice' and stomped over to Newt, he spun to look at her.

"You really think that's all it is? I know things. I know a bloody lot and they won't just test you."

"I don't care you dick, I'm doing it for you. So come w-"

"I said. Piss. Off." He holds a Launcher up and presses it to her stomach. She doesn't move an inch, she just glares at him.

"Newt, buddy, don't hurt Ada. You like her remember? She's your friend." Minho held his hands up in a submissive gesture and shuffles closer to the pair.

"Yes. Yes. I did like her." His head twitches, "didn't I Minho? Good buddy. But you," he laughs, "you took her from me. You and your muscles walked right in here and kiss her. Behind my back so believe me when I say, I will shoot her and it will be your fault. Now piss off before I do."

"Newt. Stop behaving like this, this isn't you. I know you're in there and I know you wouldn't shoot me." Ada says, she reaches out and puts a hand on his cheek, his face softens and he looks almost human, "remember our promise? Back in the Glade? We said we'd get home. We'd hold on and find our families. I found mine and I hate them and you know what I worked out? You are my family. You and Minho and Thomas, Brenda, Frypan, Jorge, Teresa. Everyone. Every last one. And my family isn't complete without you."

Newt's finger curls round the trigger and she collapses. Lightning white streaks dance across her vision and havoc erupts.

Newt bends down to her and whispers in her ear, "you broke our promise."

Somebody wraps a shirt around her and tugs, dragging her along. She tries to move, stand or anything but her body is rigid.

Newt had shot her. He'd looked her in the eyes and pulled the trigger.

She feels herself being tugged along the floor, glass scraping her back to pieces and she forces herself to move her legs but the lightning jolts through her and she blacks out.

Her body complains but she manages to roll out of the bed and flop onto the floor, she rolls over and pushes herself onto her knees and then uses the bed to pull herself into a standing position, her head swims but she stumbles into the hall and finds Thomas and Brenda having a hushed discussion.

"Hey! How you doing? Have a nice nap?" Ada frowns bemusedly at his greeting but lets him lead her away from where Brenda stands chewing her nail.

"Yeah. How's Minho?"

"Want some food?"

Ada stops, "Thomas. How's Minho?"

He won't look her in the eye, "what Newt said got to him. Then he shot you..."

"Show me." The idea that Minho had lost his spark killed her.

Thomas closes his eyes but waves her back down the corridor.

Ada walks into the darkened room and can make out Minho flopped on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She slides in next to him and finds his hand under the covers.

"Minho?"

"Yeah."

"You okay?"

"No."

She sighs, "I know what happened looked bad but you have to remember, that wasn't Newt."

"But it was. In his eyes, there was this awful wild look but I was him."

"No. Newt would never have pulled that trigger. That, that, was an animal." A moments silence before she sits up and swings her legs out of the bed, "come on. Up!"

"Ada, no-"

"Minho, yes." She flicks the light switch on. "Get up or I'll sing."

He laughs, "I like it when you sing."

"Well you won't like me when I'm angry."

"Ugh. Fine." He rolls from the bed and stands up, "happy?"

"Ecstatic. Now, come on. We've got things to do. People to see," she skips out of the room, an unusual happiness settling over her.

"Don't you think you should rest? You did get shot in the stomach with a Launcher." Minho calls after her.

She spins and lifts up her shirt, revealing her stomach, "no marks, I'm fi- jeez. Maybe I should rest." A nasty lightning type scar spreads across her stomach. It starts at, where Ada presumes, the grenade hit and spreads out, several tendrils of lightning shooting from her belly.

"Man... I can't believe he did that."

She drops her shirt, "No. Not him. It. That isn't Newt, not anymore."

But Minho's expression remains stoic so she heads off to find the others, who sit with Jorge in the cockpit.

"Your both up? Good. Now, once we make it back to Denver we can plan," Brenda holds a Gathering and they all discuss their options. Ada is adamant that she's still going to infiltrate Wicked, get the cure and save everyone; Minho pleads with her to not; Brenda mediates and Thomas watches.

"We're here. We can get some supplies and we'll work out all the details once we're inside."

However, from the moment the ramp goes down it is quite clear the getting into Denver is the last thing they're going to be doing.

Two men and a woman stand weapons at the ready. They've all got metal masks like the Red Shirts and Ada hates them before they even open their mouths.

"What is this?" Jorge took the lead again.

"Shut your mouth, Munie."

"The shucks a-" but the Launcher was levelled at Ada's face and she shuts up.

"Step down here, nice and easy and we won't shoot you."

"Start firing and we'll be on you. You may get one of us but we'll have all of you." It was very clear that Jorge was just talking but he sounded convincing.

"We've got a van, over there. Get inside. We've got black hoods in there, which you'll put on and you best not peek or I'll blow your brains off."

They hold their hands up and head for the van. Once inside they pull the black hoods on, three more people waited in the van, all armed.

 _Our odds are getting worse as the minutes tick_.

"Who's paying you to steal Immunes?" Thomas.

Nobody responded, the van starts and they're off on their way to oblivion.

The ride was smooth but incredibly long, Ada nuzzled into Minho's shoulder and snoozed.

When they stop Ada reaches up to take her hood off, "don't do it. Don't you dare take those off till we tell you. Now get out, nice and slow."

"You are one tough shank, I'll- oof," Minho's cut off as a fist connects with his stomach and Ada winches.

"Now. Get out." They're all helped from the van and guided to a big airy building, the door slams and they all pull of their hoods.

"What?" Somewhere between fifty and sixty pairs of eyes study the five newcomers and Ada stares back. There are people of all ages, children even.

"Who are you?" Brenda asks, a certain defensive note to her voice.

"We're Immunes." A woman who looks to be about thirty steps forward.

"Where are we?"

"Don't know."

"Who's got us?"

"Don't know."

A tone of irritability etches into Brenda's voice, "do you know anything?"

Ada jumps in before Brenda shouts, "we just want to know anything..." Her voice peters out as a girl starts shoving her way through the crowd.

"Teresa?" Thomas runs towards the girl but stops short, "why did you abandon us?"

She steps back in offence, "What are talking about? You left us..." A look of clarity washes over her, "oh. They said you were in the woods surrounding the complex. We tried looking for you. Of course they lied."

Ada steps towards the woman who approached them first. "What happened to Denver?"

"The Government declared a state of emergency. Everything went crazy, these people who've got us rounded people up in the streets. All the government officials disappeared at once. No one knows what happened."

"How'd everything get so bad so quickly? We were in the town three days ago?" Brenda asks.

That grabs Ada's attention, "Three days? How long was I out?"

"Two days. After we got you out of the Crank Palace you slept for two days. We thought you'd died."

"Cheery."

Aris had made his way to the front of the group and stood staring at Ada, Minho edged over to her and took her hand. Ada yanked hers away, "would you stop with the macho games?"

She storms away from him and Aris has a smug look on his face, quickly removed by a glare from Minho. "Where's everyone else?"

"They got taken by another group. Sold to Wicked yesterday." Teresa says, her eyes fixed on the ground, "sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Do something. Don't get mad. Get even." The two girls exchange a look and an understanding is formed. They have both done things they regret, now's the time for action, "I was going to get into Wicked, let them make the cure and get it to Newt. I'll find the others while I'm there."

"You're going back?"

"Newt is worse. A lot worse. I have to help him, look at what he did." She lifts her shirt showing the lightning on her belly.

Teresa shakes her head, "your choice." And she turns and walks to Thomas and they walk off to a quiet part of the barn.

Ada sits with her back against a wall and watches everything happening. Someone sits next to her, "I'm sorry. I want to say that. I'm sorry for kissing you in the cave."

He stands up and walks away before she can say anything. She just leans her head against the walls, close her eyes and hums a tune from a film she saw once, "Are you, are you coming to the tree? They strung up a man they say who murdered three. Strange things did happen here no stranger would it be if we met at midnight in the hanging tree."

"That's a nice song, hermana."

"Thanks."

"What's it from?"

"Some movie I watched. My old memories are kind of fading, whilst my new ones come back."

"That happens."

"Nice."

"Yep." Pause. "I'll get us out of here."

"Great. And I'm the king of New York."

"Kid I know-"

"Calling me kid really isn't getting you anywhere."

"Hermana, I know everything's been hard on you but I think you should rethink going into Wicked. Those people are monsters."

"They're also the only way I have of saving my friend. If Brenda got sick wouldn't you do what you could for a Cure? Even if it meant you could die?"

The man sighs and doesn't say anything else.

A little while later the others have sat around her, forming a group again and the door slides open. Three people walk in with sacks and a forth holds a Launcher and a pistol.

They begin passing out hunks of bread and bottles of water.

"How'd we always get into these messes?" Minho groans, "we used to be able to blame everything on Wicked."

"Still can." Thomas murmurs.

"Good. Dumb shuck faces."

An uneasy silence settles in the room as people eat, nobody wanting to start a conversation by Minho, being Minho, does so anyway, "I could take the guy with the weapons. he doesn't look so bad."

"Yeah. He has two and trust me, neither pain is particularly enjoyable." Ada says from her position against the wall.

The group approached them, handed their things to Thomas but Minho swatted it away, grumbling about poison.

Ada hears grunting and groaning and something heavy and metal lands in her lap. She grabs it and stands up, swinging it round to point at the head of the closest person to her, "you are going to tell me right now why you're selling us to Wicked or I'll pull this goddamned trigger."

"Wicked? We're not working for Wicked."

"Don't test me," she gives the woman a shove with her weapon.

"We're working for the Right Arm but that's all I know."

"The Right Arm?" She asks, "and why are our friends kidnapping us? Kidnapping Immunes?"

"I- I don't know! We're not told anything, we just do our jobs."

"Right," Ada snorts and slams the barrel of her weapon into the woman's head knocking her out. She looks round the rest of the room, the others had been pacified and were being questioned. Thomas stared at her, shocked. Ada shrugs and in her best Mafia Brooklyn accent says, "I had no more use for da punk."

"Right! Somebody best start talking or I'm gonna get really mad." Minho had his gun pointed at a man's foot.

"We don't know nothin' I swear." The man held his hands up.

"Okay." He pulled the trigger, "anyone else?"

He moves over and aims his gun at the next man, "I- I don't know anything but we could take you to the Boss."

Ada walked over and heaved the man into a standing position, "you tell us now how we meet him and my friend won't blow your leg off."

"I can drive you. There's a car outside, a van. But not all of you, Boss'd have people shooting real quick."

"Okay." Thomas steps forward, "me and Brenda'll go and meet you 'Boss'."

"Hey, what about us?" Ada asks, nearly dropping the guy.

"You and Minho anger too quick and we need someone over 20 to keep charge, that's Jorge."

Ada pouts but nods, once they'd left the room she slipped out after them. Minho spoke in a rushed whisper, "Ada where are you going?"

Her eyes light up in the dark, "they're gonna need someone who's ready to make the tough decisions. Tommy? He wouldn't hurt a fly if it was choking him."

Minho nods and hands her the pistol, "do the right thing."

By the time she makes it to the gate it's just the man left, she points the gun at him, "don't tell them I'm coming."

He just nods and let's her through.

She slides under the car and finds some handholds.

The car rumbles and they're off.


	23. Crank

Ada has an easy time holding on until the man decides to shake the car, he stops and starts at a jolt, trying to get her off but she clings on. When the man decides to start up again Ada sees a pair of feet stood but they pass by quickly and she orders who they belonged to.

Ada took a moment to adjust her grip and was glad she had because a moment later a body flew under the car, slamming into her and nearly knocking her off. The body wraps itself round the tires but after a moment of driving comes loose.

"Bloody hell." She whispers, that had been a shock and she was glad when the car slowed down, but moments later the man gunned the engine and the shot into a sea of legs.

She sees the spike coming and has to let go with one hand to swing to side and avoid it. The stick wraps itself round the axle and wedges itself in the car.

"Shit." The wraps her arms around the bar as the car swerved to the side, they were lucky she'd decided to come along, if she hadn't they'd be dead.

She lets go of the underside of the car and starts working on the spike; her work, however, is made fifty times harder because the man in the van kept trying the engine, meaning the spike ended up more stuck. Shots ring out above her and she jumps, _just stay alive and keep trying_ , she thinks, _I'm doing my best_.

Someone bends down next to the van and grabbed at her ankles, she kicks out and regrets stuffing the gun in her pack on her back, she wouldn't be able to get at it.

More and more Cranks bend down to see what's under the car. A loud smashing comes from above and Ada hopes they hold out.

With a loud cry she gives a final yank on the spike and it comes loose, she uses it to lash out at one of the Cranks and grabs onto the car before they set off again.

Shouts of glee sound from above and Ada grins, happiness was nice to hear. They ran over a few more bodies but Ada dodged them expertly and soon enough they were pulling in to a garage.

A pair of feet appear under the car and two pairs are waiting for them, "I've got two people in there. Say they need to see the boss."

"Why did you bring them?"

"They already shot one of our guys and this chick knocked out one of the others. Wasn't taking my chances." Ada nearly gets out her gun and shoots the guy for calling her chick but she knows doing that would get her shot no questions so holds out.

"A'ight. Get em out. They armed?"

"Not that I know of." A banging on the door of the van brings Thomas and Brenda out.

A bright light makes her look away from the collection of feet.

"Lawrence, that you?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"What happened to our van? Tell me you didn't bring fecteds here."

"Got jumped on the way up, the Cranks are getting smart. These two are demanding to see the boss, they're Munies."

"Why?"

"They said-"

"No. Let them tell me. Names, why you made my man bring you here and wrecked one of our only vans left."

A pause and Thomas starts talking, "Thomas and Brenda. We know Gally, we were with him at Wicked. We're on board to help but not like this, not with kidnapping. It's a little close to Wicked for us."

Laughter breaks through the silence, "I'll let you see the Boss just to clear up how not-Wicked we are." Thomas and Brenda walk towards the man and Lawrence's shoes follow, "search the van."

 _Damn._

 _Did not expect that._

Ada pulls herself up towards the van's underneath and prays that the men don't have the idea to look under the van.

She listens to the crunching footsteps and the chatter of the men as the explore the van, they find nothing of interest and they make to leave but one of the guys turns round.

Ada holds her breath and prays to any God that might still be on her side.

A hand wraps round her ankle and she's pulled from underneath.

"Hello dear." A man peers down at her, "have a nice trip."

"I'm with the people you just brought in. Thomas and Brenda, the Right Arm. Gally." She spits out every word she can think of but the two men laugh.

"What makes you think we'd believe that? You were under there for our whole conversation, you heard everything. Repeating words isn't proof." He draws his pistol to her forehead.

"Look go up there, ask Gally about Ada. I was with him in the Maze!"

The man narrows his eyes, "Ada? Think I heard him mention Ada, said she was jacked up in the head, that he had to beat her off him."

Her blood runs cold, no.

She does the only thing she can, screams. A loud high pitched scream, the men cover her mouth quick but if Brenda or Thomas heard that they'd help her. They had to.

"Wha's goin' on down there?"

"Just some chick hidin' under Lawrence's van."

Urgent chatter breaks out and eventually the man shouts, "Bring her up."

"Boss'll sort you out." The man jeers before pulling to her feet. She brushes herself off and allows herself to be frog marched up some stairs. He shoves her roughly into the room where Brenda and Thomas stare, wide eyed.

Brenda shakes her head like a disappointed parent, "it had to be you."

"Knew you guys'd need me." She saunters over to the one remaining chair.

"When did we need you?" Brenda scoffs.

"The Cranks stuck a spike thing in your axle. I got it free. You'd be dead if I hadn't come along." She looks to the other people in the room and nods, "Gally."

He gives a nod back and that is their communication done.

"As we were saying," the huge man boomed, "we are taking people to imitate Wicked, get into their headquarters and save the Immunes."

"Sounds like a plan." Ada says, "I don't agree with the kidnapping but sure, I'll help. What's the plan?"

"We have a device, it can disarm their weapons and ours but that's not important, it'll even the playing field."

"It should give us an advantage actually, there was no unarmed combat training." Brenda pitches in.

"Even better. But we need the device planted an hour earlier, it takes time to disarm everything."

"I'll go, I'll put the device in. They said they needed me, if I go, say I'm on their side they'll take me in. I can plant your device." Ada leans back in her chair, glad to know she can be of use.

"The need us. Both of us. We both go." Thomas says.

"Ratty said they need one. One of us. You stick around here, make things better."

"Ada. Quit it with the self sacrifice. We both know Minho would skin me alive if I let you go alone and I know you won't let me go alone so both of us or neither."

"Fine."

The man had been watching the events play out with a grin on his face. "Good, glad we've got that settled. Who takes the device?"

Ada goes to talk but Thomas gets in first, "Me. Ada's played the spy a few too many times, even before the Maze she was turning against them and they knew. They'll search her on arrival but no one'll think twice about me."

Ada thinks and adds, "We also have a lot of inside knowledge. Back at the barn there's a huge group of people with a huge knowledge of Wicked. Talk to them about planning an attack."

"If what you say is true, you and your friends will be a huge help for taking down Wicked. We can give you a day's prep before you go. Thomas will need to learn how to activate the device, probably best if Ada does too, just in case."

A wave of nervous excitement came over Ada, it felt good to have a plan.

The next few hours were full of information, they were taught how to activate the device; it was decided that the Right Arm couldn't just drive Ada and Thomas to the front door, they were to be dropped about three miles from Wicked by Berg and a route from where they were to the Bergs was planned out.

"You should change, skirt won't cut it in the wild." Vince, the Boss, said.

But Ada snorted, "did me fine in the Glade. Even beat Gally in it, twice."

The great man grins, "really? Cause that's not how he tells it."

"Yeah. Beat him up my first day there, ask anyone."

Gally scowls at her from across the room, it's nice to be on the same side as him for a change.

"Ada, time to go." She waves goodbye to them both and follows Lawrence to a newer van.

Inside waits a stern woman who is introduced as the pilot and Thomas who looks like he's about to throw up, she pats him on the arm, "cheer up Tommy boy, we're about to take Wicked out." But he just stares ahead, a blank expression so she flops into her seat and stares out the window.

She doesn't concentrate for most of the journey, sits watching Cranks mill about outside until one catches her eye.

"Stop the van!" She yells, "stop the goddamned van!"

It comes to a sudden stop and she throws the door open before anyone can even ask what's going on. Thomas runs beside her, obviously having noticed him too.

Newt.

Hair pulled out, scratches and bite marks and torn clothes.

But it was Newt.

"Newt. You're gonna come with us, real calm now, okay?" Ada approaches him, her pistol in hand in case any of the other Cranks gets too close.

His eyes flick up at her, "kill me."

"What? Newt no. We're here to save you, we're getting the Cure."

He spins round, flying towards her and knocking her down on instinct she brings the gun round, a shot fires from the van but Thomas waves at them to stop.

He grabs her hand with the gun and puts it to his forehead. "Kill me."

"Newt-"

"KILL ME. If I have ever been your friend, ever meant anything to you, kill me."

She stares at him, flat on her back Newt on top of her, Thomas screaming in the background that they needed to go.

Looking into his eyes one last time, she finds that bit of human in him, the bit still trapped inside and she watches as he screams.

"As you wish."

And she squeezes the trigger.

The light falls from his eyes and there is a moment of relief before he slumps against her, she pushes herself out from under him and grabs Thomas' hand, pulling him back to the van.

When they get there the pilot pulls them inside, "what the hell were you thinking?"

"It was out friend." Ada growls.

"No. It was some Crank."

Ada slams the woman into the side of the van, "don't you call him that."

The woman eyes her for a moment, "sorry. It was out of place."

"Damn straight." But Ada sits back down and ignores her for the rest of the journey, she wasn't up for a chat and was glad when they pulled into the Berg hangar.

Ada and Thomas wait by the exit, just waiting for something to do. When the hatch opens Lawrence enters, he's biting his lip and his forehead is creased, "you kids don't have to do this."

"We do." Ada shouts over the howling of the wind, they'd been told that where they'd be jumping there wasn't anywhere close enough to land the Berg. Just before she jumps she leans over and shakes the man's hand, pulling him in at the last moment, "and we're not kids."

The last thing she thinks before she hits the floor is that she should have looked before jumping.

She rolls down a small slope and a skinny tree stops her.

"Ada! You alright?" Thomas had obviously chosen where he jumped more carefully.

She gives him a thumbs up, "great."

"Then come on, we've got walking to do." He had slid down the hill and yanked her into a standing position. They walk in silence for a while finally he says what Ada had being anticipating, "it's not your fault you know? Minho wouldn't blame you."

"I know. I did what I had to." She doesn't expect it to come out so harsh but she doesn't rush to take it back.

He sighs and it's only when they're around a mile from Wicked that he talks once more, "I think I just saw a beetle blade."

"Good. Keep walking." She stomps ahead whilst he stops to examine it, "come on! We need to get there today, I'm not waiting for your sorry ass!"

He jogs to her side, "are you alright? Do you want a hug?"

"Thomas?"

"Yeah?"

"Piss off." She thinks for a moment and adds, "I'm fine. I'm not. But I need time to come to terms with it, alone and I'll have plenty of time for that later."

"Okay. I'm happy with that then."

"Great. God, this place is worse from the outside."

"No kidding, they clearly built it to scare people away."

"Looks like a creepy asylum from some old horror movie."

"What do we do now?" They were stood in front of the gate, staring. After about thirty seconds a door opened and Janson himself stepped out.

"Welcome back." He holds his arms out as if he's about to hug them both, "nobody believed me when I said you'd return."

"Great. Let's just get this through." Ada tries to shove past the man but he grabs her by the bag she'd had since their first Berg trip.

"Not so fast Miss Lovelace, we're going to need to search you."

"What? That's bull!" He took her bag and flicked through it but didn't find anything except her pistol, which he pocketed.

"Thomas?"

"Yes." Ada winced, you could practically hear the fear in his voice.

"You may come through. Miss Lovelace is the one we don't trust."

Thomas nodded and walked past, Ada was made to wait for two guards to come and walk her down the corridor.

"We need to spend a few minutes in my office, I have some people you both need to meet." Rat Man announces as they walk down the corridor.

"Umm... Before that can I use the loo? It's been a long walk." Thomas smiles sheepishly and he's shown to the loo.

Ada stands between her guards, looking from in to the other, "did you hear about the guy who got hit by a can of soda?" she snorts, "he was lucky it was a soft drink."

One of the guards gives a little snort but Rat Man glares at him and he stops.

Thomas comes back and they're lead down a corridor to a room, Rat Man holds open the door and they both enter, sitting behind the desk is a man and a woman who are introduced as a psychologist and a physician.

Ada smirks, "finally getting me to a psych daddy?"

Ratty glares at her, "we have them here because this may be hard on you."

Ada's eyes darken. "Harder than the Maze? Or the Scorch? Or making a little kid take care of your sick wife?"

"We have other things to discuss before we can speak of the Cure." Janson turns to Thomas, "we had rounded it down to a few of the... Gladers and it was between you and Ada and Teresa and Aris. Teresa and Aris turned out to have far too little free will, they'd do anything we asked of them. We need you two."

"Yes. For what?"

"Your brains."

Ada just stares at him, waiting for the punchline.

"What?" Thomas laughs.

"To be able to properly map the Killzone patterns in your brain we need to extract them. We'll send you to your rooms so you can have some time."

Thomas is led by the physician and the psych, Ada gets dragged by two guards to a separate room. "You may type up messages to your friends and we'll see to it they receive them."

Rat Man goes to shut the door but before he can Ada shouts, "we have people. On their way here."

"What?"

"There's people on their way here, they're going to fight you, try and destroy you but you'll win. I know you will and you'll take down as many of my friends as you can. I have two conditions and if they're met I'll come with you. No fights."


	24. The End

Rat Man folded his arms and looked at the girl in front of him, he felt a rush of pride. This girl was willing to give up everything for her friends. She was either stupid or loyal.

"What are the conditions?"

She holds her middle finger up. "Number one, you let my friends go. Kill the Right Arm if you wish they're nearly as bad as you in some ways but let my friends go."

"And number two?"

The next finger goes up. "Wipe me from their memories. I know the chips still work, you wouldn't throw your cards away that easy. So, you wipe me from their memories and I'll come with you, let you have my brain, anything you want. Even go back in the Maze if you wish."

He nods curtly, "you're right about the chips, we still have the ability to wipe memories but it takes time, maybe an hour or two."

"Do it. When they get here let me help getting everyone out and I'll say my goodbyes then I'll be back. Write me up a contract to sign and we can get started."

"I'll have it done now." He turns round and leaves the room.

God. What am I doing? She rested her head in her hands and waited for Ratty to come back.

A quick skim through the contract and she signs. As she hands it back to Janson he gives a stiff smile, "we'll do the operation for you straight after the raid is quelled."

"Good. Remember, in an hour to get me out and once I'm happy everyone's gone I'll come back to this room."

He nods, "I'll start the wipe. One last thing, you don't remember this but you have a brother, a twin. If you go back on your deal, get everyone out and decide to go with them? I'll kill him. He'll be with the other Immunes by the time we let you free, can't have him being found by any of your pesky friends."

And she's alone again.

 _What._

 _What even._

 _No._

 _He's lying._

 _He has to be._

 _I can't have a-_

 _I have a brother_.

"Linus." On the computer screen a room appears, a boy sits slumped over the table, he looks like her but thin, thin and withering. She shakes her head, "no."

Rat Man's tinny voice comes through a speaker. "Yes Miss Lovelace. In those memories of yours there was a boy, we kept him out, removed him and now? We put him back."

Her head floods with pictures of Christmases and birthdays and holidays.

Smiles and fights.

Watching films and hugging.

The sad screams of her brother as Ada is beaten for him.

As she takes beatings from Janson.

"Prove he's alive."

A person walks into the room where Linus is and points to the camera. The boy looks up with dead eyes and sticks his middle finger up at the camera.

She smiles slightly.

"Just to prove we're not afraid to hurt him." The man on screen takes out a blade, shows it to the camera and turns to the boy. His hand is grabbed and the person brings the knife to his hand and cuts.

The worst part of it is he doesn't scream, doesn't even appear as though he notices.

Blood pours from his hand.

Tears stream down her face and she slumps her head onto the table _._

 _Think of anything else, I beg you._

 _Newt._

 _Newt is dead._

 _Newt is dead and I killed him._

 _I killed my friend._

 _My brother._

 _The one person who stood by me in the Glade_.

An hour or so later grunts from outside rouse her from her thoughts and the door swings open, "Thomas? No, what are you-"

"We don't have time." He grabs her hand and drags her out into the hallway, she stops and takes the guards gun, "they don't work."

She shrugs but holds onto it and he tugs her along, stopping to check a map every few minutes.

"Thomas, what-"

"They're here. The Right Arm."

"Oh." Ratty must have freed him, to make it seem genuine.

She allows Thomas to drag her along hallways and they eventually come to a hatch in the ceiling, "climb."

She does and when she reaches the top she opens the hatch to a wash of cool air, she pulls herself through before turning to pull Thomas out.

"Where now?"

"The map says the Right Arm is here," he points to a little cross on a map, "and this is where the Immunes are."

"Okay- wait, is that a Maze?"

But his face says it all, he is dreading having to go back.

They jog round the outskirts of the buildings, keeping a low profile before finding a huge hole in a wall, "must be th-"

Thomas is silenced by a hand over his mouth and before Ada can respond she is grabbed too.

"I am very disappointed in you both."

Rat Man.

He drags them, kicking and flailing, to a point behind some bushes where another man waits.

They have a person each, pinning them to the floor with a knee in the chest.

"We're going to have to this the hard way." Janson shakes his head and laughs in pure disbelief, "I can't believe you broke our deal Miss Lovelace, you could have saved your friends. Seems like you're just as selfish as I thought."

 _What? He set Thomas free?_

Janson pulled a long slender knife out, "you know kids I never thought of myself as a violent man but you and your friends have driven me to the edge. I'm going to kill Thomas and then I'll kill Linus. And then? Ada, I'll remove your brain."

Ada felt sick, she couldn't even think as Janson loosened his grip on her face, pausing for a moment to be sure she wouldn't scream but she couldn't, couldn't move, couldn't think, everything hurt.

She didn't even move when Thomas kicked at the man pinning him down or took the knife from Janson's hand. Not when Thomas threw the knife, Gally style, at the other man. Not even when he screamed in her face for her to stand before grabbing her hand, pulling her to her feet and running across the courtyard back to the hole in the wall.

Upon seeing Thomas two people rise to their feet on the other side of the hole, aiming knives at the two of them, Ada stumbles into him and he nearly falls over. Having to wrap an arm round her to keep her standing.

"I'm Thomas, I'm on your side."

The weapons are lowered, "you're meant to be in there." One of them points inside, "what's up with her?"

"She's in shock. I think, been like this since I found her."

Rat Man stumbles across the courtyard, "those- children are- property- of Wicked."

"Don't give a crap about Wicked." One of the hole people said.

"Ada, if you go back on our deal I'll kill him. You know I will and no one will remember a thing. I'll give you till everyone's safe." Rat Man stumbles back across the courtyard, off to some dark sewer.

He pulls Ada through the hole, one of the people grabs her arm and gives her a slap.

She doesn't respond.

"Just let me through." Thomas shoves past the two people and finds Vince and Gally. "What's happening? Where is everyone?"

"Your friends are back there." Vince jabs a thumb behind him. "And our people are planting and preparing."

"Planting what?"

"Explosives."

Ada snaps back into focus, "explosives! No! What about the people in there?"

Vince shrugs.

"You put them in there! You ass! How long do we have?"

"Bout an hour? Not long."

Thomas shoves her towards the door Vince pointed to and walks through whilst he quizzes them a little more.

"Ada?" Minho jumps up and grabs her, pulling her into the room.

"I've gotta go." She turns to leave but Aris jumps up and blocks the door.

"No. Anywhere you go, anything you need to do we'll help."

"There's more Immunes in the Maze. Our Maze. We go in, get them out and there's a flat trains in a storage closet."

Thomas pushes his way through the door, Gally in tow. "We've got to get moving-"

"Ada's told us, we're in." Minho interrupts.

Brenda studies Thomas' map and says she knows exactly how to get there. The others manage to find weapons for the newcomers and they sneak out past Vince.

Ada felt numb, everything whizzed by her in a dream and she did not feel like fighting, she felt like sitting down right there but she couldn't, she had to save Linus.

As she runs, she feels Minho next to her, he gives her worried glances and in the end she turns on him, "what? What the fuck are you staring at?"

He looks startled, he was clearly not expecting to be shouted at. "Ada- Ada I just- you don't seem-"

"I don't seem okay? You know why? Because today, just today, I have infiltrated an organisation who are going to kill my brother if I don't give them my brain; oh," she gives a loud laugh, "found out I have a brother, who has been tortured for years inside this organisation, and I killed my best friend, shot him, right between the the eyes." The moment she finishes speaking she realises her mistake.

"You- you shot- you-" Minho stumbles for words, "Newt's dead?"

"I'm sorry."

"He's dead?"

"Yes."

"You- you killed-"

"Yes."

For a moment she braces her self for the punch that she's sure is coming but it doesn't come, he closes his eyes and when he opens them a hardy steel has formed itself behind them, "it was the right thing to do."

They share a nod and start running but before long the group stops and grunts sound out from ahead, guards had shot out of no where and Ada was nearly the only one not being fought.

It wasn't going well.

The Gladers had been completely ambushed and were pinned to the walls and floor in minutes.

Ada grabs her pistol from her boot, where she'd stuffed it to keep her hands free. She holds it to the head of the guard closest to her, "your gonna let go of him real slow for me and cuff yourself."

The man lets go of Aris and turns round to let Ada watch as he cuffs himself and Aris grins and puts a boot on his back, forcing him to lie down.

She copies this for a few more guards and they do as she says, idiots, none of the fucking guns work.

Eventually there's only a few guards and they are quickly overpowered and cuffed. Before walking off she holds the gun up, "if your guns don't work, why the hell should mine?"

The shock in their faces is enough to make her laugh. She marches down the corridor, Brenda catches up with her and points her in the right direction, "that was smart you know. What you did."

"Not really. They were just stupid." _Leave me alone, I am not in the mood for friendly small talk_.

"Either way, you saved us."

"Maybe."

That shuts the girl up and eventually they walk through the observation room, Ada's blood runs cold. This room was all too familiar. She was glad to find that Chuck's body was gone, though she feels an intense sadness at the same time.

Gally catches up to her, "Ada, last time we were here-"

"You were under Wicked control and none of it matters now? I totally agree."

Brenda points at a ladder and they climb up one by one. Everyone of them nervous.

They find themselves in the Griever Room, where Ada, Teresa, Thomas and Chuck had fought to type in the numbers whilst their friends died just metres from them.

Don't let the bodies be up there, Ada prays as she climbs up the small ladder to the Griever hole, she balances across the planks of wood that had appeared there and up onto the Cliff.

 _No bodies, I don't think I could handle it._

She stands and helps make their way across, holding her arms out and helping the remainders.

Once they're all through they turn and run through, Minho looks in the zone, proud to be here and Ada feels bad that it almost slipped her mind. This place was his home for two years.

Gally looks as though he's going to be sick, his memories of this place aren't quite so fond.

"Gally?" Ada says, "are you okay? Do you want to wait and we'll pick you up on the way?"

He shakes his head, focusing on where he runs, "if I stop I'll never get back up. Just need to get in and out."

That settles it.

As she gets closer to the Glade, Ada behinds to feel ill, _I'm about to meet my brother, my twin._

They round a corner and the Glade comes into view.

"Here we go."

Minho gets to the Glade first and skids to a halt, "what- holy crap." Ada says as she slams into him, ever articulate.

There were hundreds of people, hundreds. Ada scans the crowd looking for Linus but all she finds are adults and children, babies and the elderly. Teens and Gladers.

No Linus.

The Gladers run out of the main group to greet their friends, everyone's there, everyone's okay.

Frypan, Harriet, Sonya, everyone and once Ada has confirmed this she sprints off towards the Homestead, he has to be here.

She powers through the Homestead, slamming open doors but he's not there. An earthquake hits and she stumbles but rights herself and checks the Slammer before running to the woods.

"Linus!?" She yells, leaping over logs and dodging round the trees she makes her way to the charred Runner hut. Throwing the door open she sees a figure hunched over, "Linus?"

He looks over his shoulder.

"I'm- my name is Ada. We're twins."

"I know."

"Ada, oh thank god, what-" Minho had appeared next to her and his eyes widen when he saw Linus.

"Minho, give us a minute?" Minho backs off but doesn't leave completely. Ada approaches the boy in the hut, "are you okay?"

"They hurt me." He whimpers.

"I know, I know they did and I'm sorry. They took my memories of you, they'd only just given them back when they showed you to me. Are your hands okay? Do I need to get Clint? He's our medical guy."

He holds up his hands, they're caked in blood. Ada steps back and looks to Minho, "get Clint. Tell him to find some bandages and something to clean wounds and lots of it."

Minho runs off back in the direction of the main Glade.

"Linus, we're getting someone to clean your wounds and bandage them. Will you let them help?"

The boy licks him lips before nodding slightly.

"Good. We've got a few minutes before they come, do you know much about who you are?"

"I remember everything. Remember you standing up for me when we were little and mum getting sick. Dad going nuts and taking us. He said you'd abandoned me but I knew you hadn't, he was always the bad one."

"Good, that's good." Ada is nearly all the way to him when Clint and Minho jog up, Clint has a cloth bag hanging by his side.

"I have everything we need, where's the patient?"

"Linus, do you want to come out here with me? It's a little dark in here and we can't see properly to clean you up."

The boy stands shakily and Ada offers a hand to support him out of the hut, when they get through the door Minho puts an arm around the boy and Ada lets go and points to a log, "sit there."

Clint watches as the pair of them head for the log and Minho lowers him onto it. Once they're settled he approaches, "this'll sting a bit but we need to be sure they're clean, is that okay?"

Linus nods.

Clint drips a liquid onto the wound and Linus winces a little but stays still. Next Clint gets out a cloth and starts dabbing at Linus' hands, the blood starts to clear and he gets a better look at the wounds. "We should do stitches for wounds like this."

"Do we have ti-" the ground shakes, answering Ada's question, "Stitch him up when we're safe. Just bandages for now, 'kay?"

Clint nods and wraps his hands up. Ada steps back to admire her brother, my brother. He looks like her.

They both wear similar clothes as well, only he's in black trousers, not a skirt, a maroon tank top, as apposed to Ada's maroon vest and a black hoodie, instead of a cardigan. Their boots were the same though.

"What?" He grunts when he notices her smiling.

"Nothing. Just strange is all."

Minho helps Linus walk and they head back to the East Door and the group gathered stares as they approach. Thomas stands at the head of the group, closest to the door; he waits for the little group to reach the front door before shouting to the gathered people, "we're here to get you out. If you follow us and do what we say you should be okay. We will have to fight but the weapons are down so we have the advantage through sheer quantity."

The floor rumbles and everyone stumbles to stay standing, a cracking, crunching noise draws everyone's attention to a huge chunk of wall but before anyone has time to react a large group of people are crushed below it. He barks orders to various members of his Scorch family and they run about rounding up their own groups of people - Minho and Ada get left to Linus.

Once he's been given the thumbs up from each leader he shouts, "Everybody follow me!" and runs into the maze.

And they do, Minho hands Linus back to Ada so he can help navigate and Ada pulls her brother along. Around her people fall to the floor, huge chunks of wall fall and people are crushed or injured but all she can do is think of her brother. _I cannot lose him_. She thinks, _not now Newt's gone_.

She continues to run, pulling her weak brother over bodies and rubble, dragging him along. His feet move but she suspects he hadn't been given a lot of food, he was weak and could hardly carry his own weight.

People suddenly start slowing and Ada can see why, a piece of rock blocks the path, making a bottle neck; people are having to slow down immensely.

Ada drags her brother through and Sonya gives her a pat on the back as she reaches the other side. Ada is near the front of the group now and she can see Thomas and Minho at the front leading everyone to safety and it fills her with a great deal of pride, these people, her family, were saving lives.

Minutes later and they're at the Cliff.

Ada's stomach drops. There's no way Linus can get across by himself.

She lets everyone else go ahead, waiting at the side and watching as everyone else goes past.

"Ada, get your ass over here!" Minho has stuck his head through the Flat Trans.

"Linus. I don't know how the bridge will hold!" She shouts but at that moment and idea dawns on her.

"Linus? Can you hear me?" He nods, "lie down. Get on your belly and shuffle across. I know your weak so me and Minho will hold the bridge steady."

He does as she commands and on the other side of the bridge Minho grabs the planks. Linus shuffles across slowly, when he nears Minho, the boy grabs his arm and yanks him through. Just as his leg goes through he kicks the plank and it falls.

Ada watches it go.

"Ada, what are you-" Minho stops when he sees her expression.

She looks up and waves at him, "get back!"

Getting back to make sure she gets a run up Ada blocks out the falling walls of the Maze around her and runs, full pelt at the Cliff.

She aims for where the Griever Hole should be and flies into the room. Someone pulls her up and she brushes herself off.

Looking round the room she sees her friends startled faces and smiles, "tada."

Thomas tries to hide a laugh and Gally gives her an impressed nod.

But Minho grabs her by the shoulders, "don't you dare pull that klunk again." He pulls her in to a tight hug and she feels his heart pounding.

"Where's Linus?"

"Who?"

"The boy, from the hut?"

"Oh." Minho looks offended, as if she's cheating on him but she ignores it, "He's out in the hall."

"Alright, you don't need my right now do you? Need to be sure he's okay."

Minho shakes his head and she walks off.

Ada runs out to find him, he's talking to one of the younger Group B girls and as she approaches he looks up, "hey."

"Hi."

"Thank you."

"No problem. Have you been given any food? I'm sure Frypan has something."

"My ears are tingling." The cook had been stood nearby and took a sandwich from his pocket, "I'd been saving it but here, we'll be free soon enough."

Linus takes the sandwich and eats it with the manners of an animal.

"Thanks Fry, good to see you're okay." Ada glances at him and he smiles back.

"Glad to be okay. Didn't mind being back in there so much 'til I realised the electricity wasn't working. They just sent up packages of food three times a day." He strolls off to talk to some other Glader.

Thomas walked out into the hall and clapped his hands, grabbing the attention of everybody. Minho, Jorge, Gally, Brenda, Aris, Harriet, Sonya, Teresa and some Group B girl that Ada doesn't recognise stand behind him. "Okay everyone, we're gonna need to get everyone down that slide over there. There's also a ladder but it needs to be done calmly and in an orderly fashion. Once you reach the bottom, wait. Don't touch anything just wait right there and one of these guys will be down to direct you."

People start making their way down the hall, "Linus are you okay? Do you need to use the slide or can you handle the ladder?"

Linus sighs and leans his head against the wall, "Ada?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm fine. I've eaten so I can walk and you need to help your friends."

"Sure?"

"Positive."

She pats his arm before heading to Brenda, "can I do anything?"

"Who's that boy?"

"Brenda, now's not the- wait, you don't know?"

"Know what?" Her brow creases.

"He's Linus. My brother. We're twins."

"I don't remember being told about a brother."

"Maybe Ratty kept him to himself? You surely weren't told everything?"

"True."

They stand at the back of the group and help to shepherd people down the slide, everyone is down and they hear a loud moaning from below.

"Grievers below. Use the ladder!" Someone shouts up the slide, it's followed by screams.

"You first. I'll watch from here." Ada waves the girl down and she goes. Ada grabs a big rock and watches as a Griever flails its arms, keeping an eye out till Brenda reaches the bottom. She puts her hands on either side of the ladder and slides. She lands at the bottom as Brenda grabs her head and pushes down, as she gets down she feels the whoosh of a Griever arm over her head.

She pops back up and grins at the woman, "thanks."

"Any time. Come on."

Ada dodges out of the way and turns to see Thomas fighting the Griever, someone is face down on the Griever, being sucked in, "Brenda!" Brenda turns round and seeks out Ada, "go! Get everyone out of here. Get them to the Flat Trans."

Brenda nods and Ada turns back to the fight, she begins to work out what the hell she can do. Before she can get anywhere near the creature Thomas has his arm shoulder-deep in the Griever's blubber, a moment later he pulls himself off the monster and a strange canister is in his hand. The monster releases its prisoner who stands up, "Teresa? You okay?"

"Yeah." The girl wrinkles her nose at the Griever goo that now coats her front.

Minho comes over, "all gone. Brenda's leading them to the Flat Trans. We should get going."

Minho and Ada starts walking but before they even register the breaking noise a loud cry echoes through the room, they turn to see Thomas on the floor next to Teresa.

She's crushed under a huge chuck of wall, dead.

Minho grabs at Thomas' arm, "mate, there's time for mourning later, for now we need to go." To prove his point a piece of ceiling crashes behind them.

Thomas gets slowly to his feet, shuts his eyes and when he opens them he sets off down the corridor after Brenda.

"Let's go." Ada and Minho start jogging again.

When they get to the crowd of people they're already in the room, everyone stares at the Flat Trans and a moment later Thomas appears through it, "it's real! There's grass and everything. Start filtering through."

A nervous woman approaches him and he encourages her through. One by one people start disappearing to who know where.

Ada breathes a sigh of relief, everything would be okay.

Once she'd made sure everyone was through she'd stick something in front of the Flat Trans and find Rat Man. They'd forget about her and she'd finally get peace.

The Glader army stood guard around the crowd of people waiting to get into the Flat Trans, Linus stood with Ada, hands shaking.

"It's gonna be okay Linny." She reassures, "we're gonna be free soon."

He turns to her, a hard, brotherly expression fixed to his face, "No. We'll be free, me and your friends. I know about your deal Ada and I have no intention of letting you fill it."

"Ada? What's he talking about?" Minho had been standing close.

"Nothing, he's being stupid," Ada hurried to respond, you could have thought of something better.

"She's made a deal with dad. He told me all about it, if he lets you guys go free she'll hand herself over."

"Linus you little shit." She is furious, not in a sisterly way just plain furious. Now they'd try and stop her which would mean they'd be in jeopardy.

"Ada. How could you be so stupid?" Minho near shouts in disbelief.

"She did it for you Minho. You and your friends." Rat Man entered through the door, several guards file in with him, "if she goes through the Flat Trans I have the legal right to kill her brother. Even if she goes through the Flat Trans, you won't know who she is, part of her deal by the way."

"Brother, wha-" Minho begins but is cut off by a rumble, Thomas takes the opportunity and dives at Rat Man, knocking him to the floor.

The others take their cue to attack and Ada shoves Linus behind her, "go through the Flat Trans. Now." He backs up.

A guard runs at her and she grabs a canvas that had been placed by where she stood. As he reached her she slammed it on his head, temporarily trapping his arms. She throws him to the floor and pounds his face until he stops moving.

Standing up she observes the room, these people were fighting for her and her brother. _Why? All I've done is cause trouble, building the Maze, entering the Maze, stabbing Gally, in the Scorch, everything I've done has been a hinderance. They'll be glad to forget me._

Ada saw Thomas pounding Rat Man, his hands wrap around the old man's throat and Ada feels a little twinge of anger, t _hat should be me, he brought me into this world, I should take him out of it._

Minho, who has finished fighting, pulls Thomas off the, now dead, Ratty.

Ada just stands still. It's over. Everything's over.

Someone grabs her and pulls her through the Flat Trans but she can't stop looking at the body of her dead father.

 **A/N I am gonna do an epilogue btw. Also maybe a sequel, I'm not sure yet.**

 **Would you like a sequel?**

 **Also, I will be doing some re-reading of this, to edit.**


	25. Epilogue

His arm wrapped around her waist he threw her to the floor after they came through the Flat Trans.

"Minho! Oh my-"

"How do you know my name?" He looks at her with a blank expression.

She creases her forehead and looks at her old friends, the same blank expression stares back.

He doesn't remember me, none of them do.

They are out in some fields, with a stunning view of the city.

It's been a few weeks since they arrived and they are getting a camp built. There are tents everywhere. Each one for something different.

Minho has been in charge, telling people where to go, what to do and the Immunes let him. Nobody else has a clue.

"Hey, you need help with that?" An young girl, maybe Minho's age or a little younger, approaches him. She's attractive and whenever he's seen her she has an air of confidence about her but now she seems nervous and tentative.

He hands her one of the sacks he'd been carrying, "thanks."

"No problem." She heaves it over her shoulder, no complaints.

"What's your name? I think I've seen you about. You're the one with the twin right? Leonard? Li-" he tries to conjure it up.

"Linus yeah. I'm Ada. You? Well you're Minho. I know that."

He stops and looks at her, "what?" She rubs at her face, "do I have food on my face again?"

"No- no... The name is familiar. I can't seem to place it."

A spark lights in her eyes and a smile spreads across her face, "you remember?"

"No- just the name."

"That's enough for me." The smile remains plastered on her face.

Recognition lights his face and for a moment Ada thinks he may have remembered. "You were the one I saw on my first day right? The one I pulled through the Flat Trans?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that was you- I mean me." She throws the sack down where he points and her shoulders slump. She's out of reasons to stay and chat and all she wants to do right now is hug him.

"I remember seeing your brother, in the escape from the Maze but I don't recall you? You two strike me as the close sort."

"Yeah. We are." She doesn't explain herself, she doesn't want to she walks away. Every bit of energy going into not running back to him.

He watches her walk away bemused, he'd known someone once who dressed like that.

Had he?

 **A/N bittersweet ending for Adho!**

 **What do you think?**

 **Sequel?**

 **Start over?**

 **I have no clue.**


	26. Author's note

Minho doesn't remember Ada because Rat Man had started the memory swipe an hour before so even when he died the Swipe happened.

What do you guys want now?

I can do:

Prequel - before the Maze

Sequel - Ada with the Munie colony

A different OC/pairing

Or I could re-edit this one? Not change the story line but just add details, fluff it out.

Anything else?


	27. Beyond

The sequel is up, I hope you like it.

It's called Beyond.


End file.
